From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Wed Feb 23 2000 - 03:16:59 MST
James Rogers wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Feb 2000, Spike Jones wrote:
> >
> > Who knows what could happen with future societal attitudes? In the
> > distant future, people may decide all of us are evil, for we had the
> > means to prevent immediate starvation of destitute Africans, for
> > instance, and failed to do so. spike
Actually, I fully expect that they will look upon us as uncivilized
barbarians. And, by the standards of their day, they'll be right.
> This depends a great deal on your definition of evil. It is arguable
> that the extraordinary amount of capital expenditure required to "fix" the
> world's poverty issues would actually be a greater evil, diverting capital
> from projects with far greater potential for good.
Statistics show that the average person produces more resources in a
lifetime than they consume. Those who have been educated tending to
produce far more than those who have not been. Organizations like the
Grameen (sp?) bank show that investing in the poor often pays off many
times over. One of the things that *I* plan to do with my money, should
one of my Internet ventures one day pay off big, is to see if I can't find
a way to invest in the poor of the world. Rather than being a huge capital
sink, I see it as one of the greatest untapped sources of wealth in the
world today.
--
Stirling Westrup | Use of the Internet by this poster
sti@cam.org | is not to be construed as a tacit
| endorsement of Western Technological
| Civilization or its appurtenances.
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