On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 1:06 PM, joseph berg <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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) > The rise of an economic elite will cause the desire to get rich to blind society to everything else: - Not even a collapsing world looks dark to a man who is about to make his fortune. E.B. White To make that more relevant to the 21st-c., I would parapharse it to say: - Not even a collapsing world looks dark to a man who THINKS HE is about to make his fortune THROUGH GAMBLING.
