X-Message-Number: 28134 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: economics Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2006 10:55:10 +0100 > Remember that the bloody > revolutions of history did not always come from the extreme left - > Weimer Germany is the perfect example of a bloody revolution from the > right which lead to the rise of the Nazis. The use of force to impose ideas makes the extreme left and right very similar. That is why they will always fail eventually. People object to being forced to do things. ("Nazi" = "National Socialist") > Again, unless you consider tax force of course it is, it is enforced by violence if people don't pay. If anyone other than someone working for and on behalf of a government takes money this way it is a criminal offence punished with great severity. As noted elsewhere Gates and Buffet have voluntarily started a large charitable trust rather than hand their money over to tax collectors (either immediately or via taxation on deaths as funds trickle down the generations). I suspect that one reason they have done this is that they don't trust what tax collectors and their masters may do with it. Some people try to change the world by taking it, or part of it, over by force, and then raising taxes, often from envied minorities. For example, they could start out by spending the tax money on putting in motorways, introducing a "people's car" that is cheap to run and buy, and making the trains and buses run on time. Gates and Buffet earned the money (by having above average ability and will to work but largely by being in the right place at the right time). Now they are trying to change the world by putting their funds where they think they are best spent. It is their money, they make the choice. A shame it wasn't curing the disease known as ageing, but that was not their choice with their money. They have not seen the fact that they would help more total strangers by finding a solution to the ageing process, as opposed to targeting specific diseases. This is because without ageing there would be substantial reductions in cases of heart disease and cancer. Not having to treat so many cases of these diseases would release more money into the economy for other things. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz: http://John.deRivaz.com for websites including Cryonics Europe, Longevity Report, The Venturists, Porthtowan, Alec Harley Reeves - inventor, Arthur Bowker - potter, de Rivaz genealogy, Nomad .. and more Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=28134