[extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

[John K Clark]

"The Avantguardian" <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com>

> Do you measure your happiness in the saving of a few
> pennies here and there?

Yes, that is one of the keys of Sam Walton's success, money is the way to
keep score, it lets you know if you're wining or losing the war on poverty.

But I was thinking more of the formation of all those third world sweatshops
he encouraged; they saved far more people from starvation than Mother
Theresa ever did, and they lifted others (like in South Korea and Formosa
and Singapore and a few hundred million in China) from a life of degradation
to the middle class.

>  I will probably never be as rich as Sam Walton was but in some ways I
> consider my calling to be somewhat higher than that of a penny
> pinching merchant. And I can assure you that Sam Walton never
> saw the sublime beauty of a lymphocyte on the prowl for a cancer cell.

How poetic, how moving, how mystical, how brainless. Sam Walton gave the
poor a way to climb out of poverty, you offer them nothing but your tears.

> Perhaps I am full of shit but I prefer calling it conscience.

Do me a favor and honestly ask yourself one question, what is really your
top priority in this matter? Is it solving the problem of world poverty or
is it showing off to the world what a caring empathetic man you are?  No
need to tell me your answer because I don't need to be a psychic to know
what you will say, but tell yourself the truth. And don't worry, I won't
hear.

John K Clark