Erratum: "If you..." -> "You..." On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 11:27 AM, James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote:
> 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 >> > >
