The Sinking Of The U.S. Duopoly
The beginning of the 20th Century was the era of the big ocean liners. Huge and luxurious ships like The Andrea Doria, Lusitania, Mauritania, Titanic, and the Queen Mary made the trip across The Atlantic not only in record time but in style. Perhaps the greatest of these ships, though lesser known, was the U.S. Duopoly.
I’m pretty sure Duopoly is Latin for “Destined By God To Rule The Waves Forever”. The Duopoly was unique in that it had two entirely separate crews, one to take the ship in one direction, and the other to take it in the opposite direction. In either case, though, the ship never deviated from the route prescribed for it by its owners.
Originally intended to provide transportation to all sorts of people, the owners of The Duopoly soon discovered that it was far more profitable to cater to the extremely wealthy and not worry so much about the poor people who boarded in hopes of finding a better life. However, since satisfying the needs of the wealthy required a lot of staff, the poors were able to pay their way across the ocean by catering to the every whim of the first-class passengers.
The Duopoly was steered westward by team A and was steered eastward by team B. It seemed like a good system except that it always seemed to carry a little more back right with it than it ever did going left. In fact, it was hard to deny that…