To be clear, when I say "irrational" I mean it literally in the sense of Greek philosophy's emphasis on ratio:
If you can't take a number out of context -- that is to say, a number without respect to another number which may provide a ratio. To attempt to do so is irRATIOnal. Yes inequality of wealth will always be with us. To read people talking about comparative degrees of inequality is to deny their RATIOnality. In your mind there are two positions to the discourse: equality and inequality. This is quite clearly irrational. On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 10:56 AM, Peter Gluck <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear James, > > I will not discuss here about subjects that are not related to LENR. > Actually you are not speaking about my opinion, inequality is a fact both > in Nature and in societies, I am not ignorant about any actual numbers or > the Gini coefficients worldwide. You are over-complicating the facts, > inequality goes beyond taxes and even political regimes. What a dredful > inequality is in North Korea! The dictator is a god, many people die of > hunger etc and from inside nothing can be changed. > By the way, when I have worked in journalism (2002-2010) I could follow > the steady increase of inequality worldwide on the Web and in practice in > my country, It is a very powerful process. I remember using the following > quote for one of my writings about Inequality: > > "“*Nature* is unfair? So much the better, inequality is the only bearable > thing, the monotony of equality can only lead us to boredom”. *Francis > Picabia quote* > > Nature's main aim is interestingness. > > I will continue this discussion only in private, Vortex has to be focused > on LENR, it was almost destroyed by a Troll. > Peter > > On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 6:04 PM, James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Peter, to be polite, your view is irrationally anti-civilization. It is >> so irrational that it gives a bad name to anarchists. >> >> You are irrational because you cannot seem to grasp that degrees of >> inequality -- degrees graphically illustrated in that video for those >> otherwise ignorant of the actual numbers (such as yourself) -- those >> degrees matter as a symptom of an underlying disease in society if not the >> disease itself. >> >> Look, its simple: >> >> Civilization enables accumulation of property beyond the homestead -- the >> accumulation of what might be called "artificial" property. Artificial >> property rights are therefore the proper tax base. Basing your taxes on >> economic activity is crazy and leads to run-away centralization of wealth. >> It is an obvious failure mode of civilization as the wealthy are prone to >> institutional capture in order to shift the tax base from wealth to >> economic activity. >> >> I laid all this out, including macroeconomic as well as microeconomic >> aspects in a white paper over 2 decades ago but the current short story is >> as follows: >> >> Tax the liquid value of artificial property rights at the risk free >> interest rate of modern portfolio theory. Establish liquid value via >> escrowed bids. The high escrowed bid for a property right receives >> interest at the risk free interest rate. Other bids do not. >> >> This gets rid of what might be called "private sector economic rent" as a >> corrupting influence on civilization. >> >> However, it leaves public sector rent seeking as a moral hazard. This is >> best dealt with by distributing revenues as a citizen's dividend -- equally >> to all citizens -- and requiring national defense to be decentralized as it >> is with the Swiss. >> >> >> >> >> On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 9:18 AM, Peter Gluck <[email protected]>wrote: >> >>> Inequality is a law of Nature. Now, when we are living in Moneytheism, >>> it is applied to wealth, in the dawn of the human societies it was already >>> applied to power. (who has invented kings, emperors, dictators?) Re-read >>> please the chapter about Mediocristan and Extremistan in the "Black Swan" >>> by N.N. Taleb a great book to be read by LENR workers of all ages,too. >>> Democracy can scratch a bit at the surface of Inequality but cannot >>> change the situation much. >>> Peter >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 5:02 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> That is depressing. The facts described in it have been widely known >>>> for decades. It is like the extreme cost variations of healthcare described >>>> in Time magazine the other day. Educated people know about it but it is not >>>> considered politically correct to discuss it in the mass media or during >>>> political campaigns. >>>> >>>> - Jed >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Dr. Peter Gluck >>> Cluj, Romania >>> http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com >>> >> >> > > > -- > Dr. Peter Gluck > Cluj, Romania > http://egooutpeters.blogspot.com >
