A good, clean, safe life full of leisure for thinking and creating... isn't that where capitalism is supposed to go? Why shouldn't one resist going backwards?
The yardstick of a persons life appears long, but used as a measure against human events much less geologic events, it is like trying to measure out a small town with a 12" ruler.
Jeffrey Sachs says that up until 200 years ago, essentially everyone was poor. Period. So wealth for semi regular people is really only 200 years old and that really is true.
The middle class: gee, that's just a post WW II phenomenon. Post Keynesian, brand new, unheard of prosperity. However, the disparaging tone directed at people accused of self indulgency for expecting what was totally expected, is way way out of line. Just a few years ago, the US was glory bound with William J Clinton and his man Robert Rubin running the economy.
When the man calls out This Way! make sure he is going forward before you follow. Running backward with great purpose: Monty Python does that.
Friday, June 03, 2005
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3 comments:
That may be where we want to go and may well be where "we'll" be but for the moment it sure aint where we're headed. Though we may not LIKE what Friedman has to say, I think he's spot on as to where we're headed. Like climate change, we need to figure out how to adapt since it is too late to prevent.
And for the people of India crawling out of poverty, they sure as hell don't want us to prevent.
Good article. It seems that the undertone is fear. Fear across Europe of "Polish Plumbers", fear for the European socialist system as Indians look for opportunities, fear in the U.S of tech outsourcing, fear, fear, fear.
We teach our children to grow beyond their instinct to keep all the toys for themselves. It seems we will eventually need to learn this lesson as a species.
[grin] adapt to climate change?[\grin] cars might run well on hydrogen, but people will likely want air, water, that sort of thing. Of course, there could be one helluva model change. And/or some huge bump in intelligence and the products of it.
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