Yes, I agree with this email. I was objecting to your statement that wealth *has to* be extracted from you and me.
On Sunday, December 15, 2013, LizR wrote: > On 15 December 2013 19:06, James Tauber > <[email protected]<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', '[email protected]');> > > wrote: > >> On Sat, Dec 14, 2013 at 5:27 PM, LizR <[email protected]<javascript:_e({}, >> 'cvml', '[email protected]');> >> > wrote: >> >>> I haven't had a chance to watch it, but I do know that banks are >>> stealing our wealth - as indeed are rich people generally, since "wealth >>> breeds more wealth" and that more wealth has to be extracted from you and >>> me. >>> >> >> Wealth doesn't have to be extracted from anyone. It isn't a zero-sum game. >> >> The 1990 to 2010 saw a *halving* in the rate of extreme poverty in the >> world. Those people didn't extract wealth from anyone. >> >> That's due to technological advance, which enriches everyone in the long > run. For example, mobile phones have changed agriculture in Africa almost > overnight. For another example, everyone in the west has things that almost > every king and emperor in history couldn't even dream of possessing. > However, taking money out of an economy doesn't enrich more than a few > people, quite the reverse; it reduces the money in circulation -- at least > until inflation reduces the amount removed and causes more tokens of > exchange to be created. Hence Chandra Nair's solution to the widening > rich-poor gap and its detrimental effects on the First World - print lots > more money, and give it away (print being a euphemism - you can do this > just by putting numbers into a computer's memory, nowadays, of course). > > The problem is that economists pretend that wealth IS a zero sum game, > which they can do if they carefully ignore the effects of technology, which > creates wealth (in the real sense of the word) and environmental > destruction, which reduces it in a real sense. Since governments and so on > play by the rules laid down by economists, the "1%" taking money out of > circulation really *does* reduce the wealth of the 99%. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:_e({}, > 'cvml', 'everything-list%[email protected]');>. > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected]<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', > '[email protected]');> > . > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- James Tauber http://jtauber.com/ @jtauber on Twitter -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
