Keith, Recall what I meant by Fat Cats. I used the term only to describe those who received privilege. Privilege is private law (privi lege). It is used to benefit one at the expense of another. To go all Zen on you, it's like a one-way exchange.
Criminals can be dealt with separately. Fat cats are not criminals. It is private law that benefits them, but they get the "ill-gotten" gains legally. There is more. We work to accumulate until we tire and have to stop. A privilege never sleeps. You may recall that poem from the Middle Ages, which details how we "don't work on Saint's days, or when we are ill. Or at night when we have to sleep." The last line of each stanza is: "But the mortgage keeps on working all the time." So too it is with privilege. If the fat cat has sense enough to allow the gains from privilege to accumulate, he can use them to acquire more privilege, building privilege upon privilege. In return for these gifts, he gives nothing. (Though, of course there are expenses involved in buying the legislation.) Some of our friends who are properly incensed by huge incomes at one end of the scale may see in this process the reason for their annoyance. But, unfortunately, they tend to lump all high incomes together - the sheep and the wolves become a category. The privileges should be removed, but that requires getting our elected representatives to do the right thing . With the high costs of a good education for their kids - can they be expected not to keep their hands out for fat cat benevolence? Harry ___________________________________________________ Keith wrote: >Hi Ed, Arthur and Co, > >In this discussion I am finding this counterpoising of markets and "truth, >beauty, justice and harmony" to be unhelpful. If you're going to attack >markets then you are also in danger of attacking free choice. > >This generalised attack on "fat cats" is unworthy of intellectual >discussion. Some fat cats are so by accident (of birth or lucky chance), >some are so by being granted privileges by government, some by being >criminal and hiding their activities, some because they are mainly >motivated by creativity, some because they are mainly motivated by wishing >to be benevolent. > >You really can't lump them all together. > >What is the nasty aspect of fat catiness? Superficially, it is if they are >mainly motivated by greed. But if that all it is what is really wrong with >that? (Bear in mind that wealth always re-cycles sooner or later to the >poorest in the land, so it's only a temporary circumstance.) What is really >wrong with fat catiness is that the possessors of wealth are also able to >wield power far beyond the wisdom of the normal individual. And, sooner or >later, this sort of power tramples over ordinary people and causes >unnecessary suffering. Power corrupts and all that . . . . > >It is the power aspect which is the important one, and this deeply involves >information and access to justice, too. If we really want to discuss >"truth, beauty, justice and harmony" and markets let's get back the >fundamentals of human society. > >Assuming that we can reasonably safely assume that "truth, beauty, justice >and harmony" is best understood and practised within the family or within a >circle of friends, let's extend our search a little wider to the group or >the tribe. > >One fundamental that existed for millions of years is the need for >power-ranking within the group in order to keep peace (and "truth, beauty, >justice and harmony") within the group, and to protect from attack from >without. This need for power and status is built into us genetically. >There's no escaping from it. But within a tribe, the wielders of power were >always accessible either to appeal to for justice or to pull down when too >tyrannical or senile. > >The other fundamental was either the cause of the rapid evolution of homo >sapiens from his hominid ancestors or a close corollary of it, and this was >the need to trade in order to extend the resources available to the tribe >and/or improve the circumstance of life. Because it is so relatively recent >(50-100,000 years old) this behavioural trait is genetically flimsy >compared with power-status. But nevertheless, it is a sine qua non of our >species. Trading is what makes us human as compared with other mammalian >species. > >Note, importantly, that power and trade had very little to do with each >other originally and occured in quite different circumstances. The leader >of a tribe could not supervise fair trade between individual members of two >tribes because he had no jurisdiction over the other tribe. It was >sufficient that the member of one tribe, for his own benefit, would >individually assess the worthwhileness of an exchange with the member of >another tribe. Any infraction or guile used in an exchange could only >happen once because one party could refuse to trade on the next occasion. > >The problem since then, however, is that by reason of the development of >ever more powerful weapons of warfare, human governments have extended far >beyond the limits of the tribe and politicians can now straddle both sides >of a transaction. The result is that powerful people can now interfere in >trade -- usually because they have been bribed -- to the benefit of one of >the parties to a transaction (individuals or corporations or industrial >lobbies or professional guilds). Ever since agriculturalisation this has >happened throughout history and is as strong as ever today. > >This is the real problem, It's not markets versus the finer things of >life. It is skewed markets (and also skewed access to justice) versus >access to sufficient information (and access to the courts) to allow free >choice. > >The opponents of globalisation (as a synonym for free trade), whether they >are Islamic terrorists or professors (such as our dear own John Gray of >the London School of Economics) are absolutely united in one respect. None >of them can put up a reasoned alternative. All they can do is attack. > >Keith ****************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of LA Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 Fax: (818) 353-2242 *******************************
