The Infinite Matrix | Michael Swanwick & Francisco Goya | The Sleep Of

Reason 51

02.20.03

the sleep of reason

by Michael Swanwick

with illustrations by

Francisco JosÉ de Goya y Lucientes

Click image to enlarge

Digital image © copyright

Davison Art Center,

Wesleyan University

DAC permission required

for any other use.

51. [Plate 78]

Capitalism for Dummies

For the rich to get richer, the poor must get poorer. Not because the

amount of ambient wealth is fixed ? it is not ? but because of what is

known in economics as a "frontier."

Here's how a frontier works. The total value of all goods, plus the

profit that capitalism requires is greater than the total value of

everything that can be paid for them. The profit is all paid for by debt.

So, to keep the system afloat, next year's profits have to be larger in

order to cover this year's debt. Once you stop and total everything up,

the whole system collapses.

Similarly, once your wealth outstrips those things you want to buy, the

only way to better your lot is by contrast. To keep things going, the

distinction between rich and poor must constantly grow. This year you're

grateful you're not poor. Next year you can be grateful you're not poor

and deformed.

This is why the laws regarding kitchen workers are so draconian. Their

salaries are pathetic. They have neither health care nor sick leave. If

they're ill they must come to work anyway, or lose their jobs.

like swanwick?

like goya?

so do we.

keep 'em sparring!

send money.

T H A N K S !

It doesn't stop there, though ? oh, no. In the very poshest restaurants,

the dishwasher must scrape the plates clean with his hands; he's not

allowed a dishrag, soap, or even water. The scullery-maid is only

twenty-three, but decosmetic surgery has made her a hag. The fellow who

works the bellows for the charcoal stove (gas would be safer, electricity

cleaner; even coal would be cheaper; but this is a luxury establishment!)

has worked there so long that he's forgotten the outside world exists.

If you tip the chef generously enough, he'll let you in the kitchen to

see their misery. You'll be more grateful than ever for the Cote de Veau

blanc cuite en cocotte dans son jus, gousses d'ail roties, pommes puree

et epinards now so amiably distending your stomach.

For your pleasure, these poor brutes are allowed to neither rest nor eat

nor drink in all the sixteen hours a day they're imprisoned in the

kitchen. They resent it, of course. But what can they do?

Nor are they allowed toilet breaks. If they really have to go, there's

always the stew.

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This is the 51st of 80 stories by Michael Swanwick written to accompany

Francisco Goya's Los Caprichos. For a listing of the most recently

available stories, go to The Sleep of Reason.

Eileen K. Gunn.

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