I call it the 180 degree Syndrome, when apparently smart people, especially professors and journalists, get their premises wrong. Here is a snippet from an article about "freegans".
THE Thanksgiving holiday is over and the frenzied Christmas shopping season has begun. This is bonanza time for the tribe of rummaging Americans known as "freegans".
The anti-capitalist freegans - the name combines "free" and "vegan" - are so appalled by the waste of the consumer society that they try to live on the leftovers, scavenging for food in supermarket dustbins.
"It's fun. It's a thrill. It's more fun and more satisfying than just going to the store and saying, 'I wanted some bread and I got it'. It's the surprise - and the prize," said Janet Kalish, a New York high school teacher who describes herself as "60 per cent freegan".
"The No 1 problem is that Americans have lost touch with what food is for," Professor Jones said. "We have lost touch with the processes that bring it to the table and we don’t notice the inefficiency."
Did you catch it? Professor Jones says capitalism is so inefficient that we produce too much! Capitalism is so inefficient that freegans can live out of garbage cans! That capitalism is so inefficient that Professor Jones can make a living complaining about it! He's 180 Degress out.
End poverty, promote Capitalism!
