Date:         Thu, 25 Mar 2004 10:42:13 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: recycled german parts / eBay
In-Reply-To:  <d2.85965b6.2d943793@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

> Ebay must have come from the furtile mind of a master conman.
>  Mr. Ebay makes his millions (billions? Who knows, it's only
> money) by providing a service and the suckers he serves do
> all the work!  It's no community, it is the pinnacle of bald
> faced capitalism


Yes it is. But must I remind you that we live in a capitalist country -
one that actually encourages and rewards bald faced capitalism!  Pierre
Omidyar ("Mr. Ebay") had a great idea and implemented it well, hence its
(and his) success. It is no different from a physical flea market (or
the swap meet at a VW show), where vendors pay a fee to sell their
wares, and the flea market owner has little involvement besides
providing the space and collecting his take. Ebay simply moved this
concept into the 21st century. A simple yet incredibly successful idea.
Heck, I wish I'd thought of it first!  :-)

If we are to resent his success (whether due to innovation, marketing,
or just being in the right place at the right time), then we must
similarly resent other incredibly successful entrepreneurs such as Roy
Kroc or Henry Ford. They worked within the rules of our free market
system, figured out how to work it to their (tremendous) advantage, and
got filthy rich as a result. If you have a problem with that, then you
have to change the rules by which they're expected/permitted to play
(and I'd argue that we should, but that's another issue entirely).  But
you can't complain about someone who followed the rules.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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