Posted on 08/03/2005 11:04:35 AM PDT by Stirner
WE'RE rich because they're poor. No proposition is more central to the left-wing view of the world than the idea that the rich West survives in its comfort because it exploits the poor in the Third World.
A variation on this lies at the heart even of much Islamist terrorist ideology. The utterly ridiculous Peter Singer even wrote a book purporting to work out how many dollars the rich world should pay to the poor to make it rich too.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
No, but AIDS helps.
Look at the US. Welfare perpetuates welfare. Aid as a one-time measure like a natural disaster helps until people can get back on their feet economically . However, cont'd aid to a country that has no future economically will never work. That's like pouring money down a limitless drain.
"The poor will always be with you" Jesus
People these days are confusing the government protected corporate raiders for real capitalists. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Of course, all the socialists want is an end to capitalism in any of its variants and themselves put in charge as the natural arbiters of who gets what with a little something extra for themselves.
This is quite true of a lot of the world. Oh, they will eat the fish, but only if you clean it an fry it for them. But if it requires making a commitment, forget it.
We used to pity some of the poor people living in shacks with dirt floors and grass roofs in areas of Mexico where we vacation. Until we met some on the beach and spent the day talking. The father and the mother were perfectly happy living the way they do, and if the shack burns down, (which it had the year before) they just build another.
Both were educated, he thru high-school, she thru something akin to a Junior college, and both had spent time in the city living the city life. But now with los ninos running around they were perfectly happy to squat on empty land and live hand to mouth.
They both knew how to fish, figurativly and litterally (He had a boat that would scare me to death, in which he went out every few days to catch fish). But it was just as easy not to work at it, and the weather and richness of the land made it unnecessary to do so. He was enjoying the same beach that cost me several thousand dollars to enjoy, and it cost him nothing.
Another is the idea that poverty causes crime, when it is crime that causes poverty. Or the idea that poverty causes social disfunction, broken families, vice, when it is social disfunction and broken families that cause poverty.
This is certainly the case in the US, where structural poverty largely a non-issue.
There are three kinds of poverty. If you were parachuted into a virgin forest, you would be rich in assets but since they are yet undeveloped you may miss a few meals and find yourself living in whatever hovel you can scratch together with your bare hands. Thats one kind, and it still exists in undeveloped regions of the world.
The second kind is caused by the lack of legal clarity. This is the kind found throughout most of the developed Third World. Clear and predictable laws, honest courts, protection of individuals and their property will resolve this kind of poverty, but it seems impossible because the predominant political philosophies and moral culture keeps them locked in a rather toxic status quo.
The third kind is the kind we largely see in the US, caused as I said earlier by crime, social disfunction, broken families, and the cultural nihilism that takes root in these conditions.
The leftist view of poverty is a cartoon sketch of a problem they do not understand. They don't understand where wealth comes from so they can never understand how to resolve poverty.
I've enjoyed reading the postings.
That's all.
The size of the world population can be described with a bell curve. There is a leading edge of wealthy, a large bulge in the middle and a trailing edge of poor. If one pumps money into that trailing edge sector, there will be more children, not more jobs. Then there will be more poor and starving children.
If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.
If you teach a man to fish, you feed him forever.
Teach a man to make money, and he can buy crack for a lifetime.
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