Ray, You are right. After not mentioning the assumptions for many months, I have quoted them once or twice lately. But, only because they are appropriate. The assumptions like all self-evident truths cover all cases. So, when you, or someone else, delivers to us an instance as if it an important basic truth, I must mischievously be impelled to point it out. The advantage of natural laws is that they (should) handle all instances. Thus, if we appreciate the Law of Gravity, when a spoon falls off a table on to the floor, we are not dumbfounded - we expect it to happen.
So, with human behavior - we can expect people to behave in certain ways. When we know that, we are ahead of the game. If we refuse to recognize it - we are either dumb, or we want to make things harder for ourselves. Worse, we want to make solutions more difficult to find, but I think that is evident even in the pages of FW. I should make clear that I don't teach high school, though I have guested in classrooms hundreds of times. I teach junior and senior high school teachers. Most of my teaching life has been spent teaching adults, or teaching teachers of adults. So, when I see a need . . . . . However, I must say I have a soft spot for your opinions. Several years ago, when the assumptions came up, they were mostly discarded out of hand. Sometimes, by people who spend reams of writing on subjects of which we really know very little. And by economists whose textbooks are chockablock with hundreds of assumptions (whose truth rests squarely on their statement and little else). You discussed the assumptions and asked questions. Bully for you! If you accept them even tentatively, you will not be so surprised at the behavior of people. If you, or anyone else, doesn't agree, simply come up with an exception or two. That should knock them out of contention right away. If you can't find exceptions, then stop the argument and swallow them down. Harry ******************************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 http://haledward.home.comcast.net ******************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ray Evans Harrell Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 7:49 PM To: Christoph Reuss; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Futurework] Re: Logic 101 for Georgists > You're living proof of where privatization leads to. > > Chris Now, now Chris, you don't know that. I suspect you never met the man. For all you know he could be Selma in disguise on another e-mail. That's the fun of the internet. We could all be different from what we say. You are the power of your argument. My problem with Harry is that he seems to be practicing quoting his assumptions much too much to know them for sure. Or maybe he considers that we are all his high school class. Take him on for what he says, not for what you believe he is. I made the same mistake with you not so long ago and got in over my head in your language even though I've worked in it for many years. One has to give the other person the right to be themselves and when it is so difficult to know what is really being said underneathe it all, in your first langauge, writing and a second langauge is even funnier and more difficult albiet interesting. I'll never forget when I found out recently the meaning of "Fanny" in British. God only knows what I've been saying to Keith all these years. My wife just corrected me on three words for blacks that originated in the South and have lost their meaning in Oklahoma. We all say "Oh Boy" as in "hooray this is wonderful" but in the South it is a racial slur. And that is just English. Its a wonder that we can even type. REH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christoph Reuss" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2003 5:31 PM Subject: [Futurework] Re: Logic 101 for Georgists > Harry, > > If what you say is true, then the Canadian minister for International Trade > spouted drivel. Else, a lecturer at a funny LA school that cannot > even afford its own domain name spouted drivel. The latter seems > more likely, especially if one logically examines the contents of what was said. > > You're living proof of where privatization leads to. > > Chris > > > Harry Pollard wrote: > > I said: > > > > "You thought, for some reason the Pettigrew quote was significant > > when actually it says nothing." > > > > It was: > > > > "In Ricardo's time, however, the factors of production were > > essentially immobile. This is no longer the case. In the new > > economy, all the decisive factors -- trade, production, technology, > > distribution, finance -- are integrated. On a world scale these > > factors are extremely mobile. Consequently, the effects of tree > > trade are no longer necessarily positive for everyone." > > > > This is the sort of drivel that is designed for people who have > > taken Logic 101 and consequently are unable to think for themselves. > > This forces them to take bits of not altogether coherent nonsense > > and present it as a revealed truth. > > > > No wonder you support the corporate protectionists against the > > people. > > > > Harry > > > > ******************************************** > > Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 > > Tujunga CA 91042 > > Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 > > http://haledward.home.comcast.net > > ******************************************** > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.541 / Virus Database: 335 - Release Date: 11/14/2003 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
