Ham:
Life is a struggle for all creatures, and only the fittest survive and
flourish. The disparity of wealth is as fundamental to a collective human
system as Darwin's law of natural selection. In a civilized society the
rewards of industry are meted out to the industrious. The ideal society
would be a meritocracy where one's "marketable value" would be a direct
measure of one's efforts and contributions. To say that monetary inducement
is not necessary for self-improvement, care of the environment, and the
advancement of society is a naive assertion. What you are advocating is the
socialist ideology of redistributed wealth which Marx postulated as "From
each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." As we have
seen from history, this kills incentive, fosters a dependent underclass, and
leads to fascist statism at the expense of individual liberty.
woods:
Many goods points here Ham. I don't know what you mean or how deep your
trying to take the "fittest survive and flourish... rewards of industry are
meted out
to the industrious." I do notice effort involved. Most definitely. Values
for sure. What
people value leads them a certain way. But the disparity of wealth is not
completely
based on effort and trying to be successful according to what culture defines
as
successful. The money system, the monetary system unevens the playing
field right off the bat. In a monetary system more money has to be with a
certain
group of people as opposed to the other people in the society. This gives
money
it's value. If everybody had the same amount of money or even came close to
having the same amount of money then money would not have that much purchasing
power cause everybody has it. Some ways through this radio program a Currency
Historian
explains this. It's a good program also due to it is current information and
discusses
what's happening in the global market. But the discussion on how the monetary
system makes some people have more money than others due to the monetary system
itself (not
strictly because of effort, etc...) is interesting. Though I'm sure effort and
willingness to be
successful according to what the culture defines as successful enhances this
unevenness.
Here's the link:
http://www.andygause.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=478
woods
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