The Flames.

Flip Flop

climber
Earth Planet, Universe

Jul 8, 2015 - 07:28am PT
We have laws against leaving waste. Perhaps instead of intellectual property laws you might choose salvage laws. When your ship goes down and you abandon ship what does the law say?

Then again, my dumbass hillbilly cousin got his third strike by bootying some fishing poles and then trying to sell them back to the owners for a finders fee. He got 10 more years before he could get out. Poor f*#ker has spent most of his life in jail for being a Florida Waterbilly.

Yet there is a difference, an important difference, between being thrifty and being cheap. A cultural stereotype can be an iron chain that binds, or an iron girder that bolsters and supports. The Scots have found that it pays to be thought of as people who know the value of a dollar or a pound (that is precisely what the miser does not know; he overrates its value, just as the spendthrift underrates it). The Scottish reputation for thrift became merely the reverse side of his reputation for hard work, good business sense and fiscal responsibility, and his penchant for success. "There are few more impressive sights in the world," says Sir James Barrie, "than a Scotsman on the make." And making it big time is ultimately what Scottish thrift has all been about.

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More ominously, the stock jokes today about Scots are not about how much money they save, but about how much alcohol they consume (How do you get a Scotsman onto your roof? Tell him the drinks are on the house). The general national mood can only be described as one of prolonged depression. Yet at the same time, one Scottish industry has managed to make a remarkable comeback in the last decade, that of banking. When asked, clients say that they prefer Scottish banks to London-based ones because Scots are supposed to be so hardworking, so conscientiously honest - and so careful about the value of money. Such is the restorative power of a reputation for thrift, even a century later - a thought that must comfort Scottish bank managers when they open their credit-card bills.