why I hate capitalism...
	I hate the things that capitalism has done to the punk rock scene.
I hate having to sell my records.  I feel guilty asking for money for them.
Art should be free.  There's no way to put a value on it, and making it
have a price only undermines art's value, whether that price is a million
dollars or three dollars postpaid.  Records cost money, and giving them
away would only ruin me.  I hate having to sell t-shirts to make any 
money, but that's consistently the only thing that people want to 
buy at tour shows.  I feel like Nike, selling people advertising so that
they can pretend to display their individuality by wearing a brand name.
I am saddened by the effect that money has on supposedly independent 
punk rockers.  Every show I play, some crusty kid will come up to me and
try and get something for free, as if free is good.  After protesting that
all they have is a few cents, and trying to trade a cigarette for a 7"
(there's an ironic tale about capitalism and addiction right there, but
I'll skip it), they'll march over to the headliner's table and buy the 
$10.00 multi-colored t-shirt.  I hate having to beg and scrounge to make it
to the next show.  We played a show in Tucson last month, and as usual, 
someone passed around a cup asking for donations to help us out.  As
usual, the results were Shiite.  We got nine dollars and some change
two cigarettes (fuck it, I'm writing about that in the next paragraph),
and a 10 peso bill.  Cool.  Those same 15 kids managed to buy ninety
dollars worth of records, CDs, t-shirts etc. after we'd played.  The whole
time, I'm stuck in the middle, trying to pimp the things that are most 
important to me.
	Cigarettes and beer.  I'm by no means straight-edge, I think
drugs should be legalized, and that their continued illegality is just
an excuse for an occupying force to control our country and to keep
the underclass where they are.  But the drugs that are legal- alcohol
and tobacco- are examples of the most disgusting aspects of capitalism:
selling addiction and sickness as glamour and rebellion.  If you smoke
or drink beer that you don't make, then the company executives are smarter 
than you.  They figured out a long time ago that they could market their
shit as rebellion.  If you don't smoke, going to a punk show means waking
up with smoker's cough the next morning.  Giving your money
to the largest corporations on earth so that you can look tough at a show
or so that you can fall asleep in your own vomit in the bathroom in Gilman 
St. is inhumanly stupid.  Yet everywhere I go in the country, I meet kids 
who identify themselves by the kind of beer they drink, or the cigarettes 
they smoke.  As if drinking only king cobra makes one part of a secret
club.  A secret club with 5 million other members?  Which brings me to
the biggest success story of unfettered capitalism:
	Selling your identity.  Somehow, someone convinced you that you
could prove your identity only by becoming a billboard for someone else's
product.  Everything we buy has a brand name stamped on it in huge letters.
You're paying for the right to advertise for someone else.  So we have
the poorest kids in the ghetto spending $90 for Nike shoes, $120 for
Nike jackets, and $80 for Tommy hilfiger (sp?) pants.  That would make
a great spread for a Nike ad in rolling stone.  Two kids with full Nike
apparel, lying face down in a pool of blood on the corner of 14th and 
Valencia.  The punks are no better.  As I mentioned before, we'd rather
buy the t-shirt than the demo tape.  So we can advertise our existence, 
advertise our non-conformity.  But most of all, so we can advertise another
band on epitaph that really needs our money.  Epitaph?  or is it nitro?
or Fat wreck chords?
	Uncontrolled capitalism gives you fewer choices, not more.  Instead
of state-sponsored monopolies, we have greed sponsored monopolies.  Money
breeds more money.  Soon you will get your money out of The BANK (tm), with
a 20% service charge, and head over to The STORE (tm).  If you'll be
able to buy a book at all, it'll be THE BOOK(tm).   It will be the bible,
as written by John Grisham and Steven King.  The music you are allowed to
buy is already controlled by the money of wealthy corporations.  You can
only go to blockbuster or the wherehouse, who will soon merge.  When you
do go in, you are confronted with listening stations.  "Cool!" you think,
"I can check out music before I buy it!" well, sort of.  You can check out
the CDs that MCA, or Warner, or even epitaph has paid to have put in the
listening station.  You can listen to the music that they have paid the 
radio stations to play.  Will you notice my CD?  No way.  The stores won't
carry it without the extra plastic shrink-wrap and jewel case that I refuse
to put on and help to fill the landfills.  They won't carry it because
it has no barcode, since I refuse to make the cover art uglier for the 
sake of consumer convenience.  They won't carry it because the fold-out
poster that holds the CD has no spine, and won't sort easily.  But they
would carry it if I paid them.  If I was rich, I could get richer.
	Am I a communist?
	You bet your life.