IN RESPONSE TO AN EMAIL RECEIVED FROM B. TURK REGARDING CONSUMER LAW

Asbury, John, Collected Poems 1956-1987 edited by Mark Ford (New York: Library of America, 2008) ("America is a fun country. Still, there are aspects of it which I would prefer not to think about. I am sure, for instance, that the large "chain" stores with their big friendly ads and so-called "discount" prices actually charge higher prices so as to force smaller competitors out of business. This sort of thing has been going on for at least 200 years and is one of the cornerstones on which our mercantile American society is constructed, like it our not. What with all our pious expostulations and public declarations of concern for the poor and the elderly, this is a lot of bunk and our own president plays it right into the lap of big business and uses every opportunity he can to fuck the consumer and the little guy. We might as well face up to the fact that this is and always has been a part of our so-called American way of life." From The Vermont Notebook (with Joe Brainard) (1975), at 327, 381.).