Word For The Day: Crusader Product Inhibition: Part I

Nothing pisses me off more than CPI:

Crusader Product Inhibition (CPI) –  verb, A method of causing failure and delay to cool new products; especially those that might help poor people. CPI is caused by crusaders who think the best path to enlightenment is to put themselves in charge.  CPI is enhanced by people who are terrified to simply sell a product and let the market guide their distribution channels.

CPI is usually inflicted on products that might be handy for impoverished peasants. Crusaders don’t mind delay or failure because they view the poor as their personal livestock. Crusaders are usually bad at delivering any product to anyone under any circumstances and will blame this on anything convenient.

In the end, the product is reduced to a subsidy harvesting tool. It is either never manufactured or is endlessly delayed as the crusader desperately tries to find a way to produce objects without accepting market economics or industrial realities. Some CPI situations require blaming others for a crusader’s logistical failures. (i.e. “If those rich bastards would just shower our movement with buckets of money as described in my thesis paper, a couple of seed packets would wind up in a couple of villages in India…somehow.”)

A test to see if a product is subject to CPI is to buy it. If a flashy website asks for donations but won’t sell it at any price, then CPI has turned it into a marketing tool. It’ll be a cold day in hell before an actual product is delivered to anyone.

Example; “That new gadget that cures malaria/repels lions/cooks vegetables looks handy but after three years of CPI it’s clearly never going to show up at a store.”

CPI is a reverse Robin Hood that shitcans cool ideas into oblivion.  It’s tragic.

Stay tuned for my next post which will give a CPI example that just plain drives me crazy.

A.C.

Note: Full credit to Captain Capitalism for coining the term “Crusader” to describe non-productive losers who play around protesting and campaigning while the rest of us keep society running.