July 03, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Welcome, readers of MaxSpeak! The
Welcome, readers of MaxSpeak! The smallest journey begins with a single step.
For the rest of you who just came in looking for cat pictures, Max Sawicky, of the very interesting, decidedly left-of-center "Max Speaks, You Listen!" blog, has taken me to task for repeating a remark my Polish co-worker made last week:Joining Sullivan in the bigotry department today is uncredentialed economist Jane Galt, who relays a joke allegedly from a Polish co-worker. More noteworthy than the unfunnyness of the joke is that it implies that for anyone dissatisfied with the sort of capitalism that has emerged in the former Warsaw Pact countries, their misfortune is their own damn fault. And you can pronounce that "Savitsky," thank you very much.Well, uncredentialed I'm not, or God knows I wasted a lot of money on grad school. Of course, I'm also not an economist, and do not claim to be one; just a lone MBA with a dial-up and a dream. But it's a fine distinction, and I could understand how he missed it. However, there are some broad points I would like to address.
First of all, I want to say that I am not bigoted -- some of my best friends are Polacks.
Second of all, it wasn't a joke -- it was a chance remark during a conversation about the political economy of Poland. It made me laugh out loud when she said it, and I immediately said "I'm putting that up on my site!", to which she replied "Please, go ahead."
Third of all, it wasn't meant to imply anything about the people who are dissatisfied -- it just struck me funny. The statist left, as prone to caricature its opponents as any other group, seems not to know that libertarians and free marketers are very much aware of the profound dislocation that accompanies market change, and its human cost -- we simply balance this, as any realistic system must, against the human cost of not having free markets. The unskilled and uneducated are unemployed and often drunk in an economy still dominated in many areas by moribund state industries, as their society tries to transition from decades of oppression to a free state? I am not surprised. But of course I am sympathetic. I'm very dissatisfied with the turn the capitalist system has taken in post-Warsaw Pact countries: the decline of property rights, the over-regulated and under-productive industries staggering along on the goodwill of incompetent regulators, the absence of a free market for labor. . . you get the idea. If I had to live under such a system, with no hope of change, I'd need something heavier than a beer to get me through it.
Fourth of all, Max, who is either of Polish citizenship or extraction, is apparently challenging the existence of my "alleged" Polish co-worker. She isn't alleged; she's very much alive, and sitting across from me. And she's a little miffed at Max's characterization of her remark as "bigoted". So much so that she took the time to write an open letter to Mr. Max Sawicky, in their ancestral tongue. (She apologizes for not having a Polish character set here at work, which rather limited its readability)
Drogi Przyjacielu!Jako prawdziwa rodzona Polka pochodzenia z Warszawy, musze Ciebie wyprowadzic z bledu. Przezylam przykre lata upadku Komunizmu ì odczulam bòl na wlasnym grzbìecìe. Wyjechalam z naszego wspanialego kraju 25 lat temu. Od tamtego czasu bylam w ojczynzìe kilkanascie razy i niestety nie zauwazylam wiekszych zmian jezeli chodzi o stan trzezwosci umyslu wiekszosci naszych rodakòw, ktòrzy w dalszym ciagu maja mentalnosc biednego krewnego ze wsì (w tym miejscu chce Ciebie powiadomic, ze moja rodzina pochodzi ze wsi i ich bardzo lubie). Ciagle mozna u nas w kraju zauwazyc mnozace sie ilosci mlodych niewyksztalconych, bez robotnych mezczyzn pod budka, z piwem, ktorych stac na glupie rozmowy na “cztery nogi” i niesamowita znajomosc “Laciny”. Brak wyksztalcenia rowna sìe u nas z glupota i biedota. Tak bylo, jest i bedzie.
Moim marzeniem jest, aby nasz kraj osiagnal taki poziom ekonomiczny, ktòry istnieje tu w stanach zjednoczonych. Tak Nam Dopomòz Bòg.
Zawsze Twoja Rodaczka.
Ewa
And fifth, Max, if you're reading this: your link is wrong. Try right-clicking on this and selecting "copy shortcut" or "copy link location", depending on whether you're a Microsoftie or not. It would make it easier for them to find my racist screeds. It annoys me no end when I post hate speech and no one can find it. What if "Mein Kampf" had been lost at the publisher's? Makes you think, doesn't it? Although about what, I have no idea.
Just wanted to, you know, clear things up.
Posted by Jane Galt at July 3, 2002 06:16 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links