Leftists in The Marketplace

For some time now, I’ve had an item for sale online.  It’s an antique tractor seat, forged about a century ago in nearby Hoosick, New York, and various collectors prize these particular kind – though they generally don’t fetch much at market. Mine’s priced well above the going rate, and that’s quite deliberate: If someone wants it badly enough, and is willing to pay extra, I’ll part with it.  If not, it can sit right where it is indefinitely – I’m in no particular hurry to sell it.  Unlike a good percentage of post-COVID-19 Amerika, I’m actually doing quite well financially, at present.

I’ve had some interesting inquiries about this tractor seat over the course of its internet presence.  One guy tried lecturing me on the average market price of such an item.  When I told him I was already aware of that, but that I preferred to sell it only for the posted price, he kept upping his offer — becoming ever more irate that I wouldn’t budge as he did so. Finally, he angrily exclaimed that he’d pay the full price.  I told him that’d be fine – and then I never heard from him again. More recently, I encountered exactly the same thing from someone else – except this individual wanted me to actually deliver the item to him… as well as reduce the price.  When I flatly refused both, repeatedly, he huffed out, “Good luck with that.  Not interested.”  To which I sent no reply.

I’ve had other remarkably similar queries.  None of these passersby on the cyber-highway ever divulged their political leanings to me, of course – nor did I ask. But given that both they and I live in a “blue-state,” I’d be willing to wager the cost of the seat itself that they were all leftists.

Why?  Their respective attitudes all seemed to add up to this: “I want something, dammit, and you won’t let me have it for a price I consider to be ‘fair,’ nor will you bend over backwards to cater to me.  And that makes you a greedy, selfish, capitalist-pig asshole.”

Well, you know what, Happy Jack? Fuck you. No one owes you anything you might want for a price you happen to think is “fair” – whatever the fuck that’s even supposed to mean. If the price index on antique tractor seats is so much lower, you ought to be able to find another one somewhere else cheaper, right?  If they’re too scarce right now, well then, my pricing is maybe a little more “fair” than you’re willing to acknowledge, no? Either way, cocksucker, I’m under zero obligation to bend my bottom line to suit your pathetic, childish sense of fucking “social-justice” entitlement.  You want to cry the lyrics to that particular song, do it somewhere else. I’m here to conduct business, not kowtow to your self-righteous, dementia-induced, Marxist welfare-state ideology.

Anyhow, incidentally, if you’re either in or anywhere near southern Vermont, and are genuinely interested in that tractor seat, feel free to let me know below, and we’ll talk.

I add that only because, if you’re reading this, it’s likely you already understand capitalism and market economics… and can actually manage to practice both.

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Alex R. Knight III is originally from Groveland, Massachusetts, where he grew up listening to rock and roll, reading J.R.R. Tolkien, and the comic books of the 1970s.  He today lives in rural southern Vermont where he welds, plays guitar, paints abstracts, reads avidly, and writes.  He is the author of the short fiction collection, Tales From Dark 7in addition to the novels The Morris Roomand Empty World.  And, he is a Voluntaryist. Visit his MeWe group here.