Thoughts on Thoughts

[woofer]

Posted by: bleutigredancing
In reply to: wall_rus who wrote msg# 8642
Date:10/16/2007 1:27:46 PM
Post #of 8992

Wall-rus,

Good points. I generally agree with you about Eagles' comments, and like your analogy. I'll add a couple of comments.

1. Knowing that inequality will continue to exist, I think a good question for each of us to ask is, "To what extent can inequality exist, and we still live in a just society"? Few American economists dispute the continued polarization of wealth in our country (and to those who want to jump on to me about being someone who supports "redistribtion" of wealth...it won't fly..and I'll just call you a Trent Lott wanna be, lol). Of course, this is based on the assumption that most of us believe in equality and justice.

In an essay several years ago, Paul Samuelson, acknowledged the growing inequality. But, he noted that it's not as bad as one would think. Too many of us ignore the value of grocery coupons (give me a break..generic brands are still cheaper), rebates, free products tied to new credit cards, continued lower prices on technology items (well, yes, but in two years most are dinosaurs), frequent flyer miles, and well, that's about it. That such a statement was published says more about how Newsweek views its readership than it says about a growing inequality.

2. Many of us believe that we and those we love will always be favored "wolves," or if not favored wolves, that at least we are wolves, and therefore, the leaders interests and ours will always be the same. Just because we believe we share the same qualities, values and beliefs as the leader of the pack, doesn't mean that our interests are the same. We just think they are. I'd like to suggest that if the leader of the pack allows favored wolves to prey on the sheep, and the less-favored to clean up the scraps, and we see that as just the natural/normalized way things are, (afterall, they are deserving because they had the strength to work up to that position), we should also realize that the leader of the pack will not hesitate to paint our brown coats white, bob our tails, and file our teeth, so as to justify treating us like sheep.

bleutigre
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=23729516
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I miss bleutigredancing's posts on the VMC board.