The following is brought to you by John Maynard Keynes, Henry Hazlitt,
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a host of other Dead White Males.

At 09:08 AM 11/3/97 -0600, Christopher J Angel wrote:

				     TRIO:
				THE HOME FRONT:
			      MARTIAL ARTIST LAW

	It was what most would have considered an average day.

	However, in Nerima, it was an unusually uneventful one.  There were 
no showdowns between dueling martial artists.  No strange creatures.  
No damage to buildings that cost billions of yen.

Chris: Here's an interesting question: Where does Japan get all he money
to repair the damage it takes in all these anime?
Urd: 'Niichan, this is ANIME, not reality.
Chris: No, really, think about it.  Like in Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, they
destroy Tokyo on a regular basis.
Skuld: [sighs] 

Japan spends an inordinate amount of its wealth on construction; now
you know why. ^_^

(Seriously, it's due to old fashioned concepts of development and
especially recently, Keynesian economic pump priming.)

	The answer of course, was the same as it had been everyday, Ranmas' 
running away.  "At least," she thought before shouting to the ceiling,
 "THAT JERK COULD HAVE LEFT A NOTE!"

Chris: 'Hi Akane, I've been sent to New York to fight a big evil
superhuman crime syndicate.  I'm dating Sailor Moon and I don't remember
anything of my past. Signed, Ranma.'  

No, no, "I'm living with Sailor Moon" (nothing new there) "and dating
her...." (the ultimate crime in Akane's book, I'm sure :-)

While the 
district had sustained damages that the cost to repair went into the 
trillions.

Chris: AND WHO PAYS FOR IT!  The taxpayers! Damn martial artists!
Urd: [Looks up at the control booth.] Bitter about the amount of tax
removed from your paycheck, perhaps.

The ( totally bogus, see http://www.laissezfaire.org/hh7135c2.html )
"broken window" theory of economics says this creates economic activity
and thus we all benefit.

Very roughly the economic orthodoxy of the 1930s through 1970s or so held
that saving money was bad, and spending money was good (demand side
economics).  New Dealers would have loved Nerima.

	Akane frowned in contemplation.  Why did Ranmas' running away get 
her so mad?  She should have been jumping for joy.  No more forced 
marriage.  Still, the only thing she felt besides her anger was a 
feeling of loss.  Not the kind of loss when a friend is gone, but the 
kind when you lose someone you.... love?

Chris: Too late, babe, you lost him to a sixteen year old who rivals Soun
for crybaby, is a worse martial artist than you, cooks just as badly, has
two pony tails and odango, and who can kick all your butts!

Actually, her cooking is generally sloppy but frequently tasty.

Skuld: It's so KAWAI! How could you hate it?
Chris: Chibi-Usa is kawai and annoying.  90% of the time she's on I want
to smack her.

Cute is Good.

Seriously, with four episodes of R left to watch, but none of S with
Chibi-usa yet watched, I don't quite see what the extreme fuss is about.
Sure she's obnoxious, but I like her spunk, e.g. how she gets angry
rather than unhappy a lot of the time.

					- Harold