On Mon, 14 Dec 1998 goflo@pacbell.net wrote:

> It's somewhat mysterious to me why unit sales could make enough money
> forty years ago to keep the manufacturers interested, but today, with

Forty years ago only about 3 countries knew what mail order shopping is,
and an extremely low percentage of the population used it at all. All the
other people bought locally and/or relied on people they knew personally
for advice they trusted. Who would you trust better now, a 10 minute
Internet price survey on a product, or your 20-year best friend who says
it costs $X ? Will you still be friends after the survey ?

Anyway, REALLY long ago, continents were discovered by mistake due to
commercial prospection explorations that could have been avoided if they
had information beforehand... Not that it was bad, discovering those
places, hehehe.

Everything Europe got from the Americas in the 1st 200 years or so could
have been gotten from Africa and Asia cheaper and faster imho, if they had
known how to and where from. In fact they *were* headed for Asia, when
they got there. Big island in the way. Oops. ;)

Peter