“I was 17 and just learning what high fidelity was, what good sound was, and learning the mechanics of tape machines. It was a real education, going right from the consumer end to the record factory.” RealEndsSoundRecordsMachinesConsumersFactoriesTapeMechanicFidelityReal EducationHigh Fidelity Author:Alan Parsons
“A successful argument for a government manufacturing policy has to go beyond the feeling that it's better to produce 'real things' than services. American consumers value health care and haircuts as much as washing machines and hair dryers.” RealFeelingsGovernmentCareValuesSuccessfulPolicyProduceHairArgumentMachinesHealth CareConsumersReal ThingsManufacturingWashingHaircutsDryersWashing MachinesHair Dryers Author:Christina Romer
“The ordinary person senses the greatness of the odds against him even without thought or analysis, and he adapts his attitudes unconsciously. A huge passivity has settled on industrial society. For people carried about in mechanical vehicles, earning their living by waiting on machines, listening much of the waking day to canned music, watching packaged movie entertainment and capsulated news, for such people it would require an exceptional degree of awareness and an especial heroism of effort to be anything but supine consumers of processed goods.” PeoplePersonsWaitingEffortAttitudeAwarenessGreatnessHugeListeningDegreesNewsOrdinaryMachinesEntertainmentSensesConsumersAnalysisGoodsWakingVehicleHeroismOddsEarningExceptionalPassivityOrdinary Person Author:Marshall McLuhan
“It is now very clear that techniques of machine-human interfacing, pharmacology of the synthetic variety, all kinds of manipulative techniques, all kinds of data storage, imaging and retrieval techniques - all of this is coalescing toward the potential of a truly demonic or angelic kind of self-imaging of our culture... And the people who are on the demonic side are fully aware of this and hurrying full-tilt forward with their plans to capture everyone as a 100% believing consumer inside some kind of a beige furnished fascism that won't even raise a ripple.” PeopleBelieveHumansKindSelfCultureSidesClearPlansMachinesRaisesTechniqueAll KindsVarietyDataConsumersCaptureFascismRippleAngelicStorageDemonicHurryingManipulativeSyntheticTiltImagingPharmacology Author:Terence McKenna
“Some years ago a top Ford official was showing the late Walter Reuther through the very automates plant in Cleveland, Ohio and he said to him jokingly, "Walter, you'll have a hard time collecting union dues from these machines." and Walter said, "you are going to have more trouble trying to sell automobiles to them." Both of them let it stop there. There was a logical answer to that ... the owners of the machines could buy automobiles and if you increase the number of owners you increase the number of consumers.” IfsTryingYearsSaidHardWisdomPoliticsAnswersNumbersEconomyTroubleLateYears AgoMachinesIncreaseSellsUnionsPlantDuesConsumersOfficialsHard TimesLiberalismOwnersLogicalCollectingAutomobileOhioClevelandCleveland Ohio Author:Ronald Reagan
“This is an especially good time for you vacationers who plan to fly, because the Reagan administration, as part of the same policy under which it recently sold Yellowstone National Park to Wayne Newton, has "deregulated" the airline industry. What this means for you, the consumer, is that the airlines are no longer required to follow any rules whatsoever. They can show snuff movies. They can charge for oxygen. They can hire pilots right out of Vending Machine Refill Person School.” MeanPersonsShowsSchoolFunnyPlansPolicyIndustryMachinesAdministrationConsumersParksGood TimesAviationPilotsOxygenNewtonAirlineWayneNational ParksSnuffYellowstoneVending MachinesRefillsAirline Industry Author:Dave Barry
“If I buy a game on Steam and I'm running it on Windows, I can go to one of the Steam machines and already have the game. So you benefit as a developer; you benefit as a consumer in having the PC experience extended in the living room.” IfsI CanRunningGamesRoomsBenefitsWindowMachinesConsumersLiving RoomSteamDevelopers Author:Gabe Newell
“If you want a cow to be not just a cow but a milk machine, you can do a very good job at that by creating new hormones like the Bovine Growth Hormone. It might make the cow very ill, it might turn it into a drug addict, and it might even create consumer scares about the health and safety aspects of the milk. But we've gotten so used to manipulating objects and organisms and ecosystems for a single objective that we ignore the costs involved. I call this the "monoculture of the mind."” IfsWantMindMightJobsUsedTurnsGrowthCan DoObjectsInvolvedCostDrugCreatingAspectMachinesSafetyVery GoodIllObjectivesConsumersScareMilkCowsOrganismsAddictGood JobEcosystemsHormonesDrug AddictHealth And SafetyMonocultureBovineGrowth Hormones Author:Vandana Shiva
“Every video [slot] gambling machine takes $60,000 out of the consumer economy” EconomyMachinesVideoConsumersGambling Author:John Warren Kindt
“The real loss by gambling is $180,000 to the consumer economy for each slot machine” RealLossEconomyMachinesConsumersGamblingSlot Machines Author:John Warren Kindt
“For every slot machine you add, you lose one job per year from the consumer economy” YearsJobsLosesEconomyMachinesAddConsumersGamblingSlot Machines Author:John Warren Kindt
“A car crash harnesses elements of eroticism, aggression, desire, speed, drama, kinesthetic factors, the stylizing of motion, consumer goods, status - all these in one event. I myself see the car crash as a tremendous sexual event really: a liberation of human and machine libido (if there is such a thing).” IfsHumansDesireCarEventsDramaElementsMachinesSpeedFactorsConsumersLiberationGoodsAggressionCrashHarnessCar CrashLibido Author:J. G. Ballard