Re: Samuelson on OIl Drilling

On Fri, 02 May 2008 08:16:14 +0800, John Galt wrote:

> 
> "The Trucker" <mikcob@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
> news:pan.2008.05.01.16.48.51.924372@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> On Thu, 01 May 2008 23:07:11 +0800, John Galt wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> <forbisgaryg@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>>
news:25f3d48f-ee89-441c-a8cd-9ad47166aaf5@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>> On May 1, 6:49 am, "John Galt" <whoisjohng...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>> <forbisga...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>>>
>>>>
news:ef83522d-dc71-44aa-b24e-f68aa8e7acce@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> On Apr 30, 9:31 am, "John Galt" <whoisjohng...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > You know, I'm writing this from Bangalore, where industrialists are
>>>> > still
>>>> > respected for their ability to lift standards of living. I'm trying
to
>>>> > figure out how Americans became so jaded that they forgot that
little
>>>> > fact.
>>>>
>>>> Many of us did the fruit fly in a jar experiment.
>>>> Now I know many poopoo Malthus.
>>>> How does one know if one is in a jar or not?
>>>> We can see the depletion of the resources.
>>>>
>>>> ****
>>>> I'm sure you have a point there, Gary, but I'm at a loss to figure
out
>>>> what
>>>> it is.
>>>
>>> The "ability to lift standards of living" isn't to be respected if
>>> it isn't sustainable.
>>>
>>> ****
>>> OK.....but it might not be the industrialists fault. They don't, for
>>> example, have access to the Treasury printing presses.
>>
>> It depends on whether they "own" the government, doesn't it?
> 
> Well, suffice to say that business has a legitimate seat at the
governmental 
> table. If their influence becomes undue, then you have a problem.

In my own view of our "republican form of government", business does not
have near as large a legitimate seat and the governmental table as it
currently does. Read the quote from Jefferson that I use as my signature
very carefully. You imply that businesses are better equipped to advise
the representatives of the people as to policy than are the common people.
That can only be true to the extent that education and transparency is
lacking.  And we simply do not need legislation that is thrown together
that quickly.  We have far too much legislation in our current system and
it is very poor legislation indeed. 

>>
>>>  Industrialists come in and lift the standard
>>> of living for a short time while draining non-replaceable resources
>>> then they leave to go to greener pastures, leaving the people with
>>> a life style they cannot maintain and without the resources to return
>>> to their prior life.
>>>
>>> *****
>>> What "greener pastures" do they go to? Please have specific examples,
>>> because it sounds like you're blowing smoke.
>>>
>>> JG
>>
>> Well, the "greener pastures" are dimini****ng.  That was the point about
>> the jar.  The "greener pastures" thus far have been the poor and
>> impoverished in the undeveloped places, and the governments of those
>> places that will help the looters loot the natural resources and the
>> people.
> 
> Sorry, I don't buy off on the idea that business is exploitation. A few
bad 
> apples do not mean the tree needs to come down.

If those few bad apples have too much power then that is a very big
problem.  We have a government in which the common people are ill informed
and in which the big people use the ill informed nature of the common
people as an excuse to take more and more power from them.

-- 
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers
of society but the people themselves; and
if we think them not enlightened enough to
exercise their control with a wholesome
discretion, the remedy is not to take it from
them, but to inform their discretion by
education." - Thomas Jefferson
http://GreaterVoice.org/extend