From fork-admin@xent.com Sat Sep 21 20:22:07 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: yyyy@localhost.example.com Received: from localhost (jalapeno [127.0.0.1]) by jmason.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0803616F03 for ; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 20:22:07 +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 20:22:07 +0100 (IST) Received: from xent.com ([64.161.22.236]) by dogma.slashnull.org (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g8LIKsC31138 for ; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 19:20:55 +0100 Received: from lair.xent.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 93A1229418E; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:17:06 -0700 (PDT) Delivered-To: fork@example.com Received: from hall.mail.mindspring.net (hall.mail.mindspring.net [207.69.200.60]) by xent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF0E029409C for ; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 11:16:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from user-119ac86.biz.mindspring.com ([66.149.49.6]) by hall.mail.mindspring.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 17soqA-0006V3-00; Sat, 21 Sep 2002 14:18:50 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: rahettinga@pop.earthlink.net Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: <979BE8FE-CCF6-11D6-817E-000393A46DEA@alumni.caltech.edu> To: Gary Lawrence Murphy From: "R. A. Hettinga" Subject: Re: sed /s/United States/Roman Empire/g Cc: "Mr. FoRK" , , Digital Bearer Settlement List 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: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 14:18:29 -0400 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-5.4 required=5.0 tests=AWL,EMAIL_ATTRIBUTION,IN_REP_TO,KNOWN_MAILING_LIST, PGP_SIGNATURE,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT,REFERENCES, REPLY_WITH_QUOTES,SIGNATURE_SHORT_DENSE,T_FROM_HAS_ALPHAS version=2.50-cvs X-Spam-Level: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 10:32 AM -0400 on 9/21/02, Gary Lawrence Murphy wrote: > Cool --- I wasn't aware that the US had lifted it's population out > of poverty! When did this happen? I wonder where the media gets the > idea that the wealth gap is widening and deepening... All the world loves a smartass... :-). Seriously. Look at he life expectancy and human carrying capacity of this continent before the Europeans got here. Look at it now. Even for descendants of the original inhabitants. Even for the descendents of slaves, who were brought here by force. More stuff, cheaper. That's progress. Poverty, of course, is not relative. It's absolute. Disparity in wealth has nothing to do with it. It's like saying that groups have rights, when, in truth, only individuals do. Like group rights, "disparity" in wealth is statistical sophistry. Besides, even if you can't help the distribution, industrial wealth is almost always transitory, and so is relative poverty, even when there are no confiscatory death-taxes. The 20th anniversary Forbes 400 just came out, and only a few tens of people are still there since 1982, a time which had significantly higher marginal taxes on wealth, income, and inheritance than we do now. More to the point, they're nowhere near the top. I'll take those odds. It is only when neofeudalism reasserts itself, in the form of government regulation, confiscatory taxes, legislated monopoly, corporate welfare, "non-profit" neoaristocratic tax dodges, and legalized labor extortion that we get slowdowns in progress, like what happened in Fabian-era Britain, or 1970's USA. In fact, it is in countries where wealth is the most "unfairly" distributed, that you get the most improvement in the general -- economic -- welfare. More stuff cheaper, fewer people dying, more people living longer. I'll take those odds as well. People take greater risks when the returns are higher, improving the lot of us all as a result. Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 7.5 iQA/AwUBPYy3ysPxH8jf3ohaEQLqNQCg14YvF8NVYwKiRrghHdisBoNCOn8AoPcR QUzorXeaLe5h3T1syKl7DFNT =9kff -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'