From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sun Jun 23 2002 - 10:57:59 MDT
Olga Bourlin wrote:
>
> From: "Mike Lorrey" <mlorrey@datamann.com>
> >
> > I've never known a wealthy person to wish more poverty on others...
>
> They may not wish it, but "more poverty" happens when you've got a country
> (USA) with socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.
You previously said they did 'wish it'. How is it, exactly, that we have
socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor?
>
> > they may despise the poor for their lack of capability, luck, or
> > opportunism.
>
> Despise the poor? Why would anyone with more "capability, luck and
> opportunism" despise people with less (of those conditions)? Many of
> America's poor are children - others are simply sick, old, demented, maimed,
> the not-too-swift. Whatever happened to compassion (or just plain old
> noblesse oblige)?
Having compassion for someones bad breaks or circumstances doesn't mean
you can't think less of them for their apparent lack of ability or
motivation. Just as the abolitionists of the 19th century lobbied for
ending slavery while at the same time being scandalized by the idea of
interracial marriage, todays allegedly compassionate liberals known as
the 'guilty rich' may want to redistribute the wealth, but they don't
necessarily think the recipients of noblesse oblige are in any way their
equals. It is why liberal politicos and their adherents so easily fall
into patron/client relationships. In believing so firmly in their
medieval zero sum concepts of economics, they are equally believing in
liege/vassal relationships.
>
> > Are you still hanging with the boyars, Olga?
>
> Never have, Mike. (Didn't Peter I close the iron door on the rank and title
> of "boyar?")
Ending the title doesn't eliminate the class, they simply changed suits.
The current Nomenklatura evolving into the oligarchs in Russia today are
descended from the boyars of old.
>
> Missunsamhet
> > seems to be equal to 'jealousy' or 'resentment', and is indeed a big
> > problem. Having known many people throughout the economic spectrum, I
> > can say the poor hate and resent the rich far more than the reverse.
>
> If the are not too smitten with the rich, one can at least understand some
> of the underpinnings. But, what, exactly, is the "problem" as you (and
> Anders) perceive it to be? Is the problem one that mainly affects the rich?
> the poor? our society? Whose problem is it? And what can be done about it?
Jealousy about other people's fortune distracts the individual from
focus on their own responsibility for lack of the same. If you are so
obsessed with lobbying for the confiscation of other people's wealth,
blaming it on perceived historical injustices, ethnic differences, etc.,
you lose focus on the reasons why those in your own strata remain in
economic stasis: education, initiative, etc.
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