Ithaca is Gorges In Rear-View Mirror:tribute to the most God-forsaken hell-hole in America

Cornell Review ^ | 5/1/2003 | G. Quentin Mull

[RikaStrom]

WOW. I love it, what a beautiful rant.

[Paul Atreides]

The director of the black program house has a standing rule against exchanging salutations with white students.

Bill O'Reilly, call your office.

[detsaoT]

Yeah, no kidding, BLL. I spent half the article laughing, the other half wondering if YOU wrote it.

:) ttt

[Osage Orange]

Being from Oklahoma....I've no idea if there are gorges in N.Y....let alone Ithaca.

I have seen a Flaming Gorge though.....as a matter of fact, I've seen it in my rear-view mirror. Wow...this just keeps getting weirder.

:)

FRegards,

[Darth Reagan]

Wow, Ithaca makes my alma mater, Chapel Hill, look like Milton Friedman's dream.

[mvpel]

"Money" is based on a common agreement - if you agree to accept something in exchange for your property, then the transaction can proceed, be it a 20-dollar bill, an ounce of gold, or three cows.

Debt-backed Federal Reserve Notes circulate not only because of the strength and prosperity of the United States lending assurance that taxes will cover the debt that they represent, but also because of "legal tender" laws REQUIRING people to accept Federal Reserve Notes as an offer of payment.

Ithaca Hours circulate voluntarily, rather than by force of law, and are placed into circulation by businesses that agree to be listed in a monthly directory, who either pay their employees with them or spend them at other businesses in the directory.

So for example, a farmer might pay his workers in Hours to pick corn, and then the market might pay the farmer in Hours for his corn, and then the workers might go spend their Hours at the market for their groceries. No debt, no banks, just voluntary exchanges of value.

[Soaring Feather]

This guy makes me look like the president of the chamber of commerce.

ROTFLMAO!!!

This is hilarious and remember Cornell is called The BIG RED for a reason!!

Many are RED!!!!

[You Dirty Rats]

Who actually printed these in the first place? Somebody had to collect the seniorage!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Guess the author was right about the girls dressing provocatively!

PS: I like your screen name - it's . . . rich!

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the ping Feather. Place sounds like Portland Oregon.

[John Beresford Tipton]

Thank you for your kind words and flattery.

However I feel I must tell you that you will *NOT* be able to be added to Michael Anthony's list of recipients.

Mr. Anthony is no longer in my service. He said he was bored giving all that money to worthy people. Instead he has hooked up with that young scamp, Dick Clark, and has joined his Publishers Clearing House Prize Patrol.

So keep looking down you driveway, for no longer will he be coming here to Silverstone on his way to find his "next millionaire".

[valkyrieanne]

Why on earth would anyone go to college there?

[wideminded]

Besides a few gothic buildings and scenic gorges, Cornell’s campus is almost completely devoid of beauty.

Might be going a little far, but they certainly have overbuilt, in many cases due to the availability of federal money. One case in point is the Agriculture quad, which years ago afforded a view down towards the library. Eventually the end of the quad was blocked off with an unattractive building, obviously with no thought for aesthetics.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Why on earth would anyone go to college there?

For the same reasons any one goes to any Ivy League college anywhere, I guess.

[babyface00]

I don't dispute anything you've said in #26.

What I'm asking is how does that "...keep money circulating in the local community among local businesses, instead of being siphoned out by the truckload through Big Box stores."

Since EvilBucks are set at a fixed exchange rate with U.S. currency, they are essentially the equivalent of communal checks that can only be cashed locally. IMHO, the only way this could prevent "siphoning" is if their usage was mandatory. As it is, anyone who has dollars can exchange them for EvilBucks whenever they want to take advantage of favorable discounts by local vendors. OTOH, anyone with EvilBucks can exchange them for dollars to go to the Big Box stores.

All it does is add a layer of inefficiency to the local economy, which adds cost in the long run (although it might make everybody participating feel good - a group hug would probably be better for their economy).

They could have accomplished essentially the same thing (minus some of the feeling good) by just accepting Canadian money at face value - and they would have saved the $million in overhead in creating the EvilBucks.

[genefromjersey]

Do my Spider Senses detect the issuance of a parking ticket ? To the Author ?? In Ithaca, NY ???

[drjimmy]

That, and he obviously couldn't get laid.

[lurky]

I think a little fairness could be injected here: Has anyone read an assassination piece from a leftist student on their "backwards" college town? Why are all these conservative students complaining about the liberal colleges they go to? They've got to know they're liberal to begin with! If being in a conservative environment is so important to you, go to Pepperdine or Chicago U. or Wake Forest, etc. If this article were politically reversed, everyone here would be roaring, "Then why did you go there in the first place?!"

[lurky]

But this one is starting to see some support too:

Why would you want to live in a city you consider "evil" and drive around that city with a bumper sticker proclaiming it as such?

This makes absolutely zero sense to me.

[Billthedrill]

Well, I can think of one additional advantage to the "Ithaca Hours" currency - it's strictly grey-market; nobody pays taxes on exchanges mediated by it.

Of course, only conservatives are tax cheats. Now, repeat after me: "ENRON! ENRON! ENRON!"