[extropy-chat] Jack's right, he's not ready for reality

[John K Clark]

"Rik van Riel" <riel at surriel.com>

> If the wealth gap is allowed to grow too large, bad things
> will happen.

When China promoted the same sort of economic principles you and Jack
advocate the wealth gap was indeed quite small, all 1.4 billion people were
the same, all were dirt poor. After China really started embracing
capitalistic principles 800 million are still poor, but 600 million are not.
600 million! Not bad for just 15 years work. And you can do better?

> Learn from the past. [.] Riots are the least problem to worry about.

Yea, let's go back to the good old day where tens of millions of people died
from starvation in a single year like they did under Mao, that's the
prescription for world peace.

> organized crime rising to levels so intense that it hinders economic
> growth

If we follow your advice and that of Jack's organized crime won't be able to
hinder economic growth because there would be no economic growth to hinder.

By the way, I'm much more worried about unorganized crime than organized. I
would guess that 75% (or more) of organized crime's profits come from
providing goods and services that are banned but shouldn't be, like drugs,
prostitution, gambling, and money laundering.

  John K Clark