I'm not going to respond to the main thrust of Lee Actor's points because he's obviously comfortable with a very different musical landscape than I am. Personally, given the music that huge multinationals like Viacom and Bertlesmann are recording and promoting, giving emerging artists a chance to get out there and get some recognition for their efforts doesn't seem like such a bad thing. It should be obvious at this point that the major labels aren't going to take a chance on anyone ever again, and given their monopolistic control over recording, distribution, media exposure, radio airplay, and virtually every other step in the chain, a little public funding in order to give independent artists a fighting chance doesn't seem like such a terrible thing, given the alternative.
However, his comments on Enron betray so fundamental a misunderstanding of the situation that I had to respond. On Tuesday, June 18, 2002, at 04:53 PM, Lee Actor wrote: > You can unfairly castigate the free market if you > wish (the failure of Enron is a textbook demonstration of the > corruption of > government/business partnerships, and it was the natural operation of > market > processes that revealed the corruption) In fact, it was not the "natural operation of market processes" that revealed the corruption, it was the investigation of government regulators -- the SEC. And it was the *deregulation* of the California energy market which allowed Enron to operate the way it did. And while it is indeed the "natural operation of market processes" that allowed the top brass at Enron and Global Crossing to split with a multi-million dollar windfall while thousands of their employees get shafted, I'm not so sure that's a desirable outcome. - Darcy ----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston MA _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
