This shows that poor and rich are relative concepts.<div>The poor people in the US are more powerful and richer in many ways than kings in the middle ages. </div><div>The most powerful king in the middle age could not fight common disease or get in instant communication with somebody across the world.</div>
<div><br></div><div>But that is not the point. </div><div>The point is that it is still easy for many people to go in a down-spiral where everything is lost, even in this society that gives to some people benefits that rich people in the past would have dreamed of.</div>
<div>Not just that if the society richest can afford so much more than the average person, that is unfair. We are not talking a little more but much more. I have posted several links about what inequality does in society (it lowers all kind of social measure of well being). And inequality is not inequality with other countries but within particular community. </div>
<div>Giovanni</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">2011/11/11 spike <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> <a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org" target="_blank">extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Samantha Atkins<br>
<br><b><span style="color:#1F497D"><u></u><u></u></span></b></span></p></div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D">>…</span></b>Nor does capitalism of necessity lead to such bromides and the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer". <span style="color:#1F497D"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Ja. Since China went functionally capitalist, Chinese doctors have been seeing a rash of obesity and related diseases, a sharp rise in diabetes, etc, what they refer to as rich man’s syndrome because it is their upper class which gets these. But note that all these things are what kills poor people in the US: the puzzling argument is they are too poor to afford a proper diet, so they eat cheap high fat foods. So Chinese doctors come to the states to study our poor man’s syndrome in order to learn how to treat their rich man’s syndrome. America has some of the richest poor people in the world.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">In capitalism, the rich get richer, and the poor get richer. Granted the rich get waaay richer, faster, but the poor get richer too.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">This is a very important point once you look at what the poor can have. For the most part, they can have houses. Granted they are not as nice as the rich peoples’ houses, but they have them. And the American poor have food. They generally have cars, even if not very good ones. And TVs. Most of the people occupying Oakland have homes somewhere. <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p></div><div class="im"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">>…</span><span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> So to blame Capitalism is enough to make my blood boil.</span></span><span style="color:#1F497D"> </span><span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">- samantha</span></span><span style="color:#1F497D"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
</div></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">It need not. If a system mostly works, it doesn’t need defending. The local business people who are suffering from the Oakland occupation need defending, but capitalism does not. Capitalism can defend itself. No blood boiling required. Criticize away, show me a better way, and we will eventually evolve into that.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">spike<u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#1F497D">Over my limit today, see you tomorrow.<u></u><u></u></span></p></div></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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