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Re: The Poor in Spirit
On Sun, Aug 03, 1997 at 10:28:28AM -0400, [email protected] wrote:
>At 09:29 AM 8/2/97 -0700, Kent Crispin wrote:
>>In more general terms: A "free market" fundamentally grants more
>>control to those with more money.
>
>In a free society, the "poor" have more money (collectively) than the rich
>and outbid them for resources all the time.
I'm not sure what you mean by "free society", since earlier writings
by you and others indicate that you believe that no such thing
currently exists (certainly not here in the US), or indeed has ever
existed. Consequently, your statement here must be false on its
face, since the poor have never been in a "free society".
Even so, your statement is not an argument against what I said in any
significant way, but rather is a corollary -- the trend for the rich
to get richer and the poor to get poorer, if extrapolated to the
extreme, still results in a very small number of people controlling
more wealth than all the rest of mankind. What intrinsic
characteristic of completely unrestricted markets do you see that
naturally contervails this trend?
> Were this not so, communities of
>the "poor" would never increase in size and yet they do.
Doesn't follow at all. The poor can increase in numbers, and just
get poorer. You can see this all over the world.
>It is also much easier for the poor to get money in a free society than for
>the powerless to get power in the sort of societies you favor.
Doubtful. I favor free societies. Realistic free societies, that is.
>I can teach a poor person in America today the simple ways to triple or
>quadruple his income.
I don't believe you. Oh, in isolated cases perhaps. But not as a
general lesson you can give to any Joe Poverty, and suddenly make
him middle class.
But once again I am struck by the thought that, contrary to much of
the sentiment expressed on this list, you actually believe that
America today is a *true free society*. Have you turned in your
cpunks credentials?
> I could not teach a resident of France or Germany or
>Japan a simple way to triple or quadruple his "influence" on his government
But are you then implying that you could in the US!?!?
>and indeed a tripling of such influence would give him much less than a
>tripling of income.
No doubt about it. :-)
--
Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited",
[email protected] the thief he kindly spoke...
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http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html