raghu wrote:

> No. A far-sighted capitalist will sacrifice some wealth maximization
> in order to make sure his children and grand-children will continue to
> live off of other people's toils. That requires that (a) healthy,
> well-trained workers continue to be available to toil for his kids and
> grand kids and (b) a decent economy and infrastructure is maintained
> to support a high standard of living for said grand kids.

Why haven't actual capitalists achieved your level of insight?

Doug



^^^^^^^^

CB: Some of them may have, thereby contributing to causing the Welfare
State for many years.   FD Roosevelt was a capitalist class member


^^^^^^^


Ok fair enough. A better answer to Doug's question is that there are
collective action problems among the elite as well. As in the trader
on Wall St has no individual reason to give up his bonus this year
unless everyone else makes a similar sacrifice for the sake of their
own long-term self-interest.

I confess to taking a more extreme position than I am comfortable with
on this list partly to compensate for what I see as very
counter-productive cynicism. Any way you look at it, Obama as
President is a historic progressive opportunity. It is not going to
get better than this in the next election. We have to do everything we
can to force him in a progressive direction. And when he leans the
right way, we need to put our collective weights behind him and force
him to keep moving in the right direction.

And adopting a defeatist attitude is simply not helpful.
-raghu.


^^^^^^^
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