X-Message-Number: 28030
From: "egg plant" <>
Subject: RE: CryoNet #28026 - #28029
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:05:53 +0000

"Anthony ." <> Wrote:

>Wal-Mart's annual sales are worth more than
>Haiti's entire annual budget

Well, Wal-Mart had a better year than Haiti. A capitalist would change this 
situation by enriching Haiti, a socialist would change this situation by 
impoverishing Wal-Mart.

>Remediation technologies are always one step behind the > pollution.

Not true. You name the air pollutant, nitric oxide, Sulfur dioxide, 
anything, and there is less of it in the air now than 20 years ago. The 
water is cleaner too.

>Global warming indicates the global effects of our
>ideologies.

There have been times when the Earth has been much colder than now, there 
have been times when it was much warmer, I have no reason to believe the 
exact temperature it's at right now is the absolute perfect temperature.

>Here is just one news story about a study showin the
>relationship between increasinghly dirty air and lung >problems [ .]

No one doubts there is a link between dirty air and lung problems, but the 
air is getting cleaner, that is one reason that in all of human history 
people live longer now than they ever have.

>but overall, your assertion that air and water are cleaner
>today looks to be wrong.

If I'm wrong then name one pollutant of the air or water that has increased 
over the last 20 years, just one.

>"The pie" is all we've got right now.

The pie is growing because the economy is about as far from a zero sum game 
as it is possible to get.

>Unless we use the Earth's resources more carefully, the pie > is going to 
>be even smaller.

Then why are commodities, steel, copper, coal, cheaper now than they were 30 
years age using real inflation adjusted dollars; even gasoline was cheaper, 
60 cents a gallon wasn't cheap if you only made $4000 a year.

>Do you think that the worlds 3 richest people worked harder than the 
>populations of the 36 poorest countries?

Number one on that list is Bill Gates, he has about 40 billion,
he probably uses .01% on himself, the rest is invested in his
software company. He does not have 40 billion pictures of George Washington 
in a huge money bin like Scrooge McDuck.

And by the way, Gates's wealth would be closer to 80 billion if he hadn't 
already given so much away, mostly to help the third world.

>Will the free market magically re-create the finite
>resources we're using?

As a matter of fact it will because the most important recourses are 
brainpower and hard work.

>These difficulties are characterised by massive
>social and wealth inequality

As virtues go equality does not rank very high, you can't have too much 
justice or intelligence or kindness but you can have too much equality. 
People say Steve Jobs is worth 5 billion, they mean there are investors 
willing to pay 5 billion for his interest in a computer company and a movie 
studio. Suppose Jobs sold out to Mr. X and gave the 5 billion to the poor, 
then you'd be complaining about Mr. X. I don't think you'd stop complaining 
until the government owned it.

Do you really think if Washington bureaucrats were running Apple Computer 
they would come out with more innovative products than Steve Jobs can, or 
Pixar Animation would make more entertaining movies? What you're talking 
about is taking the controls of the wealth creation machinery from those who 
have shown great skill in operating it into the hands of those who don't 
know the first thing about it.

That is no way to cure world poverty.

>Of course if you believe "the Singularity is nigh" you might > just prefer 
>to go full-steam ahead in the expectation that the super-AI will clean up 
>our mess and find nice ways of doing things.

Yes that's my philosophy, and even without the Singularity the people of the 
future will certainly be better at solving problems than we are, just as we 
are better at it than the people of 1906.

John K Clark

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