From fork-admin@xent.com Sat Sep 21 20:22:00 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.example.com Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD09C16F03 for ; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 20:21:59 +0100 (IST) Received: from jalapeno [127.0.0.1] by localhost with IMAP (fetchmail-5.9.0) for jm@localhost (single-drop); Sat, 21 Sep 2002 20:21:59 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g8LEVuC24942 for ; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 15:31:57 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E63F294189; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 07:28:08 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@example.com Received: from smtp1.superb.net (smtp1.superb.net [207.228.225.14]) by xent.com (Postfix) with SMTP id B6EA829409C for ; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 07:27:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 11884 invoked from network); 21 Sep 2002 14:30:44 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO maya.dyndns.org) (207.61.5.143) by smtp1.superb.net with SMTP; 21 Sep 2002 14:30:44 -0000 Received: by maya.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 501) id A5A041C2C4; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 10:30:37 -0400 (EDT) To: "Mr. FoRK" Cc: Subject: Re: sed /s/United States/Roman Empire/g References: <979BE8FE-CCF6-11D6-817E-000393A46DEA@alumni.caltech.edu> From: Gary Lawrence Murphy X-Home-Page: http://www.teledyn.com Organization: TCI Business Innovation through Open Source Computing Message-Id: Reply-To: Gary Lawrence Murphy X-Url: http://www.teledyn.com/ MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: fork-admin@xent.com Errors-To: fork-admin@xent.com X-Beenthere: fork@example.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Friends of Rohit Khare List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Date: 21 Sep 2002 10:30:37 -0400 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.7 required=5.0 tests=AWL,KNOWN_MAILING_LIST,NOSPAM_INC,REFERENCES, SIGNATURE_SHORT_DENSE,T_FROM_HAS_ALPHAS version=2.50-cvs X-Spam-Level: >>>>> "f" == fork list writes: f> "Free trade and free markets have proven their ability to lift f> whole societies out of poverty" I'm not a f> socio-political/history buff - does anybody have some clear f> examples? China? Ooops, no wait, scratch that. There is one counter example that I can think of, but it may not be precisely "free trade/markets" -- when Ben Franklin first visited England he was asked why the colonies were so prosperous. Ben explained that they used "Colonial Script", a kind of barter-dollar, and increasing the supply of script ensured complete employment. The British bankers were furious and immediately lobbied parliament to clamp down on the practice. Within a few years, the colonies were rife with unemployment and poverty just like the rest of the Empire. According to questionable literature handed out by a fringe political party here in Canada, the Founding Fathers had no real complaint about tea taxes, it was the banning of colonial script they were protesting. If this is true, then it comes right back to the forces that killed Ned Ludd's followers as to why popular opinion believes they were protesting a tea tax. The same pamphlet claimed that Canada was also a prosperous nation until, by an act of parliament in the late-50's or early 60's, the right to print money was removed from the juristiction of parliament and handed over to the Bank of Canada. I've wondered about all this. Certainly the timeline of the collapse of the Canadian economy fits the profile, but there are oodles of other causes (for example, spending money like we had 300M people when we only had 20M) Anyone have any further information on this? -- Gary Lawrence Murphy - garym@teledyn.com - TeleDynamics Communications - blog: http://www.auracom.com/~teledyn - biz: http://teledyn.com/ - "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." (Picasso)