The Great Digital Swindle...

[zauhar]

... exploitation of labour, concentration of capital, boom and bust and all that ... you really would have thought someone would have predicted it

Yes, someone did - his name was Karl Marx.

I've been amazed to see the old boy lifted from the ash heap of history and dusted off in recent years.

Randy

 

[sojournerphoto]

"Employment" is a bit of a red herring. Keynes reckoned in 1930 that we'd be working 15 hours a week by 2030. Instead, we have some people working very long hours; some not working at all; and a ridiculous concentration on acquiring material goods, whether we can afford them or not. How Much is Enough? by Skidelsky pere and fils is a truly superb book: see http://www.theomnivore.co.uk/Book/C...y_and_the_Case_for_the_Good_Life/Default.aspx

Cheers,

R.

I completely agree with the book recomendation. It also mentions Marx's lifelong search for a reason for capitalism to 'inevitably fail'.

The central tennet is actually about understanding what we need to live 'the good life' and that we have reached a point where that should be available to all of us - of course it isn't, but a reasonable number of us probaly can manage well if we retrain our expectations

Mike

 

[rwintle]

One area where digital cameras have really improved over the last 10 years is in low-light/high ISO noise performance. When, for example, Nikon brought out the D4, an acquaintance of mine shot a bunch of available light test shots that absolutely floored me with how clean they were. That, I think, is the only major reason I would consider jumping on a new-gear bandwagon these days. The other might be big pixel count, if and only if I were attempting to print at poster size. Then the huge pixel counts of things like the D800 might be attractive.

But generally speaking, although I read the magazines and press releases, I don't find any great compulsion to go out and snag the latest and greatest anything.

 

[pdh]

s a truly superb book:.

also have a look at some of Slavoj Žižek's books. If anyone's not up to scratch on Lacan or Hegel, those bits are easily skipped without losing the thread or import of his ideas. "The Year of Dreaming Dangerously" is excellent.

 

[Sparrow]

Yes, someone did - his name was Karl Marx.

I've been amazed to see the old boy lifted from the ash heap of history and dusted off in recent years.

Randy

... really? I thought he was just one of the isms that Ronald McDonald was it? or other one, Raygun had destroyed with those laser satellites and stealth stuff ... hard to believe he had something pertinent to say about economics after all, eh?


.

 

[Roger Hicks]

... really? I thought he was just one of the isms that Ronald McDonald was it? or other one, Raygun had destroyed with those laser satellites and stealth stuff ... hard to believe he had something pertinent to say about economics after all, eh?

Yeah and his brothers were funnier.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

also have a look at some of Slavoj Žižek's books. If anyone's not up to scratch on Lacan or Hegel, those bits are easily skipped without losing the thread or import of his ideas. "The Year of Dreaming Dangerously" is excellent.

Thanks. This also led me to Unger, who looks even more interesting. Read any of his stuff?

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

Yeah and his brothers were funnier.

Cheers,

R.

... these are my principals and if you don't like them ... I have others

 

[pdh]

Thanks. This also led me to Unger, who looks even more interesting. Read any of his stuff?

Cheers,

R.

It's hard enough summoning up enough energy to realign what remains of my brain in order to read Zizek, unfortunately. Which is a roundabout way of saying no, I haven't.

It is good however to discover that there are still plenty of people who are thinking and writing properly radical thoughts. So much that passes now for "radical" political and economic discourse is dominated by rather deadly chest-beating.

I expect I'm now running the risk of post-deletion so I'll stop there.

 

[sojournerphoto]

It's hard enough summoning up enough energy to realign what remains of my brain in order to read Zizek, unfortunately. Which is a roundabout way of saying no, I haven't.

It is good however to discover that there are still plenty of people who are thinking and writing properly radical thoughts. So much that passes now for "radical" political and economic discourse is dominated by rather deadly chest-beating.

I expect I'm now running the risk of post-deletion so I'll stop there.

I work in what might loosely be described as a finance related profession and I was talking with a colleague the other day, bemoaning the disappearance of any radical or even, whisper it quietly, left wing discourse in public politics. He delighted me by explaining that when, aged 20 odd, he had asked his father about Marx he had been presented with the father's own annotated copy of the communist manifesto, printed in the Soviet Union in about 1964.

 

[icebear]

As people are not selfless and always try to gain some advantage either by working less and getting the same money and others working more without getting paid accordingly and then lean back, the experiment of socialism has proven over and over again that in practice is just doesn't work. Theoretically a nice idea but with real people it isn't that much of a success.

But it's kind of interesting that digital cameras can 5 pages later lead into discussion of Graucho and his brothers 😀.

 

[leicapixie]

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137809

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=137809

Strange how the original question has side tripped.
to all sorts of philosophies and diatribes.
Some relevant, some really not.
I am now happily retired, no longer doing,
any professional assignments.
The constant upgrading, a sure way,
to more costs and less profits.
Many pros leave fanatic amateurs standing still,
in quest for "better", "superior", latest equipment.
Seen friends blow away all profits on equipment,
well before the digital juggernaut.

My answer is a resounding NO to the "swindle".

Digital has given us really beautiful, controllable colors,
easy "darkroom", an almost unbelievable available light possibilities.
Clean, clear images.
Not perfect granted, but ahead of the other systems.

I use point and shoot digitals..
Easily replaceable, perfect quality for internet,
small and some larger prints.
I cannot hold one of those larger DSLR nor my Nikon-F..

 

[sojournerphoto]

As people are not selfless and always try to gain some advantage either by working less and getting the same money and others working more without getting paid accordingly and then lean back, the experiment of socialism has proven over and over again that in practice is just doesn't work. Theoretically a nice idea but with real people it isn't that much of a success.

But it's kind of interesting that digital cameras can 5 pages later lead into discussion of Graucho and his brothers 😀.

Indeed, but the same can be also said of the alternatives that have been tried😉

and there is some potential for good in digital then...

 

[Doug]

Gents, if y'all have run out of things to say on the thread topic, it could be closed. Or, curved back away from political-economic philosophies... 🙂

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Active Film Gear. by Ko.Fe., on Flickr

I uploaded this picture today and realized one thing about digital cameras. 99% of them are ugly and not so pleasant to hold. Even of they costs thousands in Euro.
Fuji-X and Leica M are the only two exception to me.
Fuji has long waiting lists for x100, mostly because they were mimicking Leica RF with it. It was first digital camera which wasn't ugly and very expensive, IMO.

May be ugliness of digital cameras is one of the reasons why they are not in use for as long as film ones.

 

[hepcat]

Vinton Trent once said..“amateurs worry about equipment, professionals worry about money, masters worry about light, I just make pictures" ...

How true this is.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Gents, if y'all have run out of things to say on the thread topic, it could be closed. Or, curved back away from political-economic philosophies... 🙂

Hold on, Doug. Exactly WHY people keep buying new stuff is what the thread is about -- and this is inseparable from economic theory, which in turn is politically driven. So the political/ economic/ philosophical bit is precisely what the thread is about.

This is why I now spend more time on the Amateur Photographer forum in the UK. Sometimes, thinking things through does lead away from the number of pixels on the latest camera, and results in a modest dose of philosophy, politics and economics. Such considerations do not seem to destroy the AP site.

You can of course close the thread if you don't like the fact that philosophy, politics and economics have been introduced. But you can't pretend that it has departed much from the original (mostly philosophical) question.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

Gents, if y'all have run out of things to say on the thread topic, it could be closed. Or, curved back away from political-economic philosophies... 🙂

Hold on, Doug. Exactly WHY people keep buying new stuff is what the thread is about -- and this is inseparable from economic theory, which in turn is politically driven. So the political/ economic/ philosophical bit is precisely what the thread is about.

This is why I now spend more time on the Amateur Photographer forum in the UK. Sometimes, thinking things through does lead away from the number of pixels on the latest camera, and results in a modest dose of philosophy, politics and economics. Such considerations do not seem to destroy the AP site.

You can of course close the thread if you don't like the fact that philosophy, politics and economics have been introduced. But you can't pretend that it has departed much from the original (mostly philosophical) question.

Cheers,

R.

... yes in what way has this gone off topic, unless the hegemony of laissez-faire liberalism has been added to list of rules?

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

... yes in what way has this gone off topic, unless the hegemony of laissez-faire liberalism has been added to list of rules?

Probably a bit like statistics, of which 87.453% are made up on the spur of the moment.

😉

 

[Sparrow]

Strange how the original question has side tripped.
to all sorts of philosophies and diatribes.
Some relevant, some really not.
I am now happily retired, no longer doing,
any professional assignments.
The constant upgrading, a sure way,
to more costs and less profits.
Many pros leave fanatic amateurs standing still,
in quest for "better", "superior", latest equipment.
Seen friends blow away all profits on equipment,
well before the digital juggernaut.

My answer is a resounding NO to the "swindle".

Digital has given us really beautiful, controllable colors,
easy "darkroom", an almost unbelievable available light possibilities.
Clean, clear images.
Not perfect granted, but ahead of the other systems.

I use point and shoot digitals..
Easily replaceable, perfect quality for internet,
small and some larger prints.
I cannot hold one of those larger DSLR nor my Nikon-F..

... well to get back on topic, I note with interest that the new nikon df is around 50% more expensive here in the UK than it is in the US. That leads me to ponder what advantages globalisation has had for me, I would say here in the UK it's a resounding yes! I, we are being swindled ...

... both the marketing and pricing is aimed it maximising shareholder values (the directors must do this by law) so all the major companies are actually engaged in making money, and if they can do that by fooling some of the people all of the time they do.

Oh, and by the way it is really
difficult to follow the
flow of your posts when
split off into separate lines
like this ...... 🙂