News-Record.com

"The money available to be earned is infinite;"

SWEEEEET!

So where can I go to get a truckload of money? I mean, if it's infinite, why even earn it? What's to earn? If there is an infinite amount of money, the money is WORTHLESS. Guess we'll have to start bartering again...what do you think a rum and Coke will cost me? Three seashell necklaces? or four?

good lord rahrah,they own you.

Good letter, Tom. Bill Gates does not determine my salary. Class envy is a political tool, honed to a fine art by liberals who pander to the underachievers so as to get their vote. (They've enjoyed great success with this ploy... so far)

rarrah, don't forget about Navin R. Johnson and the Opti-Grab.

rah rah missed an important word in the sentence "The money available to be earned is infinite". The word is "earn". Money is not worthless, because it has to be made the old fashioned way.....you earn it. It is infinite, but no one ever gets it all, because most do not want to do what they have to do to "earn" it.

Tom Dovel: "Nobody 'controls' wealth. It is not a zero-sum game. Wealth is created . . . my success does not restrict yours."

So?

Life is not fair. Some people are smarter than others. Some people work harder. They plan for the future. They work towards distant goals. They make good decisions.

I do not. I live for the moment, do foolish things.

The success of hard-working, smart people upsets me. I am jealous. It makes me unhappy.

So I am going to vote for Democrats who will take what smart and hard-working people earn to pay for government programs that don't work.

Yes, this will make the total economic pie smaller.

And, yes, I will have a little less myself. But the smart, hard-working people won't like it; they'll have less.

That's important. That will make me feel better.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

That's my motto.

That's why I'm voting Democratic.

"The success of hard-working, smart people upsets me. I am jealous. It makes me unhappy.

So I am going to vote for Democrats who will take what smart and hard-working people earn to pay for government programs that don't work."

No, it is actually:

'Some people that had rich families put money into a stock and now get millions of dollars without doing anything. They also often have a job as a CEO or other high officer that is payed in incredibly disproportoined amounts. What can they spend even $10 million a year on? Make them have to work for their money, rather than goofing off and getting a nice severance package for running the company into the ground.'

What we want? CEOs to work, not run companies into the ground and get paid for it.

"good lord rahrah,they own you."

Nobody owns me.

It was a gross exaggeration to make a point. I don't believe for a minute that these CEO's who get 'fired' and have multi-million dollar severance packages prevent me from being able to be wealthy and successful. That would be a delusion.

Just as much a delusion though is that everybody who works hard or wants to 'do what it takes' to earn it can be super successful, or, even just, you know, 'normal' successful.

If somebody asked me what I thought the number one value in America is today, I'd say it's wealth, and that's bad. It needs to be love and compassion.

Capitalism is based on having winners and losers, and I'm not saying that's a bad thing. We just can't forget the losers, writing them off as not naturally talented enough, too dumb, or too lazy.

"So I am going to vote for Democrats who will take what smart and hard-working people earn to pay for government programs that don't work."

Shuford, why don't you, neocon and some other neanderthals have Klavern meeting so you can exchange business cards? It would provide you with like minded friends, who have little grip on reality, but are never in doubt.

Be sure to return the call from your proctologist, Deekie. They've got important news for you about the location of your head.

TLC: "Shuford, why don't you, neocon and some other neanderthals have Klavern meeting so you can exchange business cards? It would provide you with like minded friends, who have little grip on reality..."

Half way into composing my post, I realized that if I proceeded I risked distressing those whose primary psychological motivation is green evil envy. Some of the wounded would no doubt direct a few choice words my way.

I paused. Do I want to disturb such people? Or should I leave them be?

But I did not pause for long.

I had recent fresh evidence of the course of that envy malady unchecked. So I ignored all risks and proceeded --- thinking truth might exert an benevolent effect on those whose lives are thus scarred.

So this is to your good mental health, TLC, as much as for the edification of other readers.

As to your specific charge, TLC, the actual inspiration for the post was my vivid memory of an intriguing table devised by Lawrence Harrison, a world authority on Third world cultures.

In his very memorable table Harrison divides "reactions" to certain "factors" about a culture --- orientation in time, wealth, work/achievement, competition, frugality, education, etc. --- into reactions typical of "progress-prone cultures" and reactions typical of "progress resistant cultures".

DO NOT MISS the table at this link:
http://www.thesocialcontract.com/pdf/twelve-two/xii-2-126.pdf

Finally, that such a post would have implications for the values sometimes associated more or less with differing ethnic groups --- rather than political parties --- did not occur to me at first. My target was that loathsome entity, the Democratic Party, not an ethnic group.

But then I realized . . . an ethnic intepretation was plausible and almost certainly would be made in this setting.

As indeed it was.