From: John Grigg (starman2100@lycos.com)
Date: Sun Feb 03 2002 - 19:47:25 MST
Olga wrote:
No envy here. I just don't understand how some human beings (one not
essentially different from another) are worth billions and some are barely
valued at all (no matter how hard they work - and by "work" I mean doing
something that takes away from one's leisure and personal time).
(end)
I do agree with your sentiments that the world is a very unfair place! But I do understand why it is that way(at least to an extent)! Two human beings may not outwardly seem all that different, but can be worlds apart when it comes to intelligence, education to utilize that intellect, personality traits, ambition levels, family backgrounds, and whether they were born into a nation offering the right opportunities for them to have at least a fighting chance.
So I can fully understand how some people are worth billions due to a combination of hard work, education, brilliance, and political connections, while another person is poor through a combination of not getting the lucky breaks of good birth to the right people(for the right nature and nurture), lacking ambition, not being able to get an education, etc.
What DOES bother me is that people(in both the first and third world) can work hard to provide for themselves and their families, and yet still not have enough for adequate nutrition, shelter medical care, and education. Some people may say that is just how life is, and that it's their own tough luck. But I just can't look at it that way. I think one reason for the transhumanist desire for a singularity, is to see every human being well cared for.
you continue:
That some
human beings are worth a BIT more than others I can understand. But the
HUGE earnings gap by those at the top to those at the bottom - that I don't,
and looks like I never will - understand. I've read the explanations
(written by the hunters, not the hunted), but they don't make sense to me.
Human beings are not that different one from another, and that's
that.
(end)
Our opportunities and abilities to gain and keep resources are often HUGELY varied. The capitalist system generally rewards those who fulfill a need, even if to "fulfill" a market opening means sometimes to unfairly manipulate and dominate.
Olga, I think you are using your emotions and good heart to traverse a topic which has a lot of harshness regarding it, and shows us how even the best systems so far to generate wealth and economic growth have a long way to go.
Again, I hope with technological growth combined with human competance, we will see the ancient plague of true poverty stamped out. And I'm not talking about the relative poverty of a 22nd century person in a near-Utopia, but the grinding poverty of the present where people go to bed hungry, suffer malnutrition, don't get immunized, get only a few years of schooling, and suffer years of monotonous hard work for pay which does not even meet their basic necessities. There are of course various degrees of poverty among the inhabitants of this world, and they all are something in need of overcoming.
best wishes,
John
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:12:10 MST