X-Message-Number: 28096
From: 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:43:51 EDT
Subject: The poor are not with us.

Anthony writes in part:
 
>Nevertheless, the super-rich are killing the poor, simply by  hording
>their wealth - this is the real "class war".
 
And doubtless the merely very rich are killing the poor in smaller numbers,  
or maybe just maiming them.
 
 
 
First of all, it is next to impossible to "hoard" wealth. Hide gold and  

jewels under a mattress? As repeatedly noted, the rich for all practical  
purposes 
only "hoard" their powers or privileges in running their companies  through 
ownership of shares. Power is also "hoarded" by legislators, regulators,  
unions, trade associations, voters, lobbyists, managements, consultants,  

boycotters, protesters, rabble-rousers, charities, churches, teachers,  
professors, 
administrators, journalists, self-proclaimed victims, and just about  anybody 
else who sees an opportunity.


 
Second, the poor in America are countably not in a dying trend, except  

perhaps those killing themselves with drugs or in drug wars or gang wars, and  
even 
those deaths may be dwindling.
 
As for poor people in America today--essentially there aren't any.  

Historically, and even today in much of the world, to be "poor" meant or means  
to 

starve and freeze and die of disease. In America today, even the "poor"  mostly

have shelter, indoor plumbing, central heating, color television, and  access to
hospital emergency rooms. They are also frequently overweight and  buy (or 
sometimes steal) more expensive shoes than I would ever consider.
 
Incidentally, my son recently spent some time in China, and some well  

educated, English-speaking executives there seriously believed that most  
Americans 
live in mansions! Not just "mansions" compared to huts, but homes of  several 
thousand square feet with several baths. That vision is premature, but  maybe 
not by much.
 
Certainly many people feel poor, or are relatively poor, compared to the  
opulence they see in the movies or on TV or in magazines. One might snidely  

suggest that "education" is the answer--educate them to elevate spiritual values
and follow Gandhi or Mother Theresa. Perhaps Anthony would feel it appropriate 
 to suggest to all Americans living above the subsistence level to give the 

rest  to the world's poorest. High-minded redistribution of wealth--even if the
 ultimate outcome would be that everyone becomes and remains poor.
 
The bottom line is that any rational person--with a few rare possible  
exceptions--should try to lengthen and improve his life, trying to  take into 

account the feedbacks and indirect consequences, internal and  external. Of 
course, 
everybody wants to give advice, and few know how to  evaluate advice or make a 
serious effort to try. Evolution in action.
 
Of course, the market place isn't perfect. Who sells the  world's 
commercially most valuable advice? Oprah Winfrey.
 
Robert Ettinger
 
 


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