On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 12:37 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 10:01 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 9:04 AM, William Conger >> <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> America has come to despise the old fashioned sense of morality and >>> ethics, the >>> real and visible hand, when it comes to the implementation of capitalist >>> economics. Now it's proper to only follow the money, care about the >>> money, >>> ignore values that any society needs, and claim that unfettered >>> self-interest is >>> the only true and impartial way to manage wealth. The Founding Fathers >>> valued >>> Virtue as the highest good. For them it meant self-deprecation and >>> service for >>> the greater good: putting the other fellow's need above self-interest. >>> Some >>> actually tried to follow that principle and they certainly framed a >>> Constitution >>> that aimed at embodying it. >>> >>> What people need to do in my opinion is to recognize that their >>> positions in >>> life are not only due to their own diligence but also the structures the >>> society >>> has in place. Those structures favor inequality in both opportunity and >>> condition. >>> >>> I'll venture that all the people on this list have enjoyed a much greater >>> proportion of inequality of condition and opportunity than most >>> Americans. Our >>> duty is to help create greater equality of opportunity for those who >>> don't yet >>> have their proper share and then assure them more and more improvement >>> in their >>> conditions. >> >> >> >> But what about those who the better they are treated (the more >> opportunities they are given), the worse they become (e.g., the more >> problems they create for not only others but also for themselves, the worse >> they become)? >> >> I've certainly met a lot of people like that. >> >> Something tells me that the truly elite can be performance-oriented, >> but everyone else should be trained to be more compliance-oriented if only >> to keep themselves out of trouble. >> > > The ruling political elite should create a compliance-oriented system that > has something to do with this: > > - The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public > debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and > controlled and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest > [the country] become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of > living on public assistance. > > Cicero > Lately, have you been feeling ground down by the system? The ruling political elite should also suppress any formation of an economic elite: - The state should take the entire management of commerce, industry and agriculture into its own hands, with a view to succoring the working classes and preventing them from being ground into the dust by the rich. Wang An-Shih (1021-1086)
