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The near-universal availability of computing and bandwidth means CHILDREN to FIVE DIFFERENT MEN! And she’s only 32!), the destruction
that web-delivered product can be given away to a mass audience of self-reliance by welfare state zealots…we all have our pet theories.
at virtually no extra marginal cost to the provider: it costs the same for But how can these revolting people afford to smoke, drink and eat
one person to receive it as it does for one million. Somewhere in that their way to their hideous lumpen condition?
million, however, are a handful of customers who are ready to pay for I believe I have found the answer, and it is not pretty.
a value-added enhancement to your product and the revenues from Due to a move, I had occasion to inspect the local shops in my new
them will more than sustain the free product you have given away. area. One was called Iceland. I vaguely remembered an ad for this
Imagine that: only 5% of your customers actually pay for your product shop, featuring someone on the fringes of show business looking just a
yet you still make a profit. It takes a brave and a broad mind to teensy bit chavvy, but I didn’t let that deter me.
embrace that model but it is one that will become increasingly I walked in, and there it was:
prevalent. 20 BEEFBURGERS FOR £1!!!! screamed the sign.
And maybe one day we can get a sachet of ketchup in a café I was awestruck. Twenty of these no doubt delicious, nutritious, grease-
without having to pay 5p for it. free pieces of unadulterated meat would happily feed a family of
(A full analysis of this will be out next year with the publication by multi-fathered sprogs for at least a week, if you throw in some sawdust-
Hyperion of FREE! by Chris Anderson. You can get a summary of his bread, a bottle of own-brand ketchup and some fizzy teeth-rotting
thesis at
www.wired.com. Chris Anderson is editor-in-chief of Wired pop as well. Barely makes a hole in the benefits, which means, QED,
magazine.) plenty of cash left over for booze and fags. Hoorah!
God give me strength.
We are increasingly faced with a drumbeat of examples of our society
heading pell-mell to self-destruction, the most recent being those Editor’s Note: In the first edition of Business First, we encouraged
ghastly characters in Dewsbury involved in the disappearance of that readers to get in touch if they wanted to pass comment on
little girl, their faces prematurely aged by tobacco, drink and anything The Sceptic said. We were not exactly inundated with
disgusting diets. (Can you believe they are in their 20’s and early 30’s? responses. In fact, we only got one, which I forbore from showing
They look at least 20 years older than that.) him for fear of personal injury.
How does this happen? How did once-proud working people of the It read: “Obnoxious drivel - brilliant!!!”
magnificent county of Yorkshire manage to turn into useless, ugly Despite my best efforts, he actually saw it. I’ve never seen him so
lumps? It can be put down to any number of things - the death of happy. So if you wish to comment, praise or otherwise slander him,
individual morality, collapse of the family (one woman bore SEVEN email him directly at
sceptic@businessfirstmagazine.co.uk
SWOTSW T analysis.
No weaknesses. No threats.
Build your skills at the Portsmouth Business School
Full-time, part-time and work-based learning in all business disciplines
www.port.ac.uk/pbs 023 9284 4220
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