$640.00 to fill the tanks...

Jay Honeck wrote:

Of course . . .
there is always the
message that capitalism needs to be reigned in lest it go crazy and
crush the weak and weary.

Well, I should think you'd want them taught "the facts of life". The
final sentence above is pretty much an emperically proven fact, is it
not?


Capitalism is ruthlessly fair. It treats everyone the same, regardless
of race, creed, or political affiliation. It is the ultimate
democracy, and its basic rules are immutable.

It isn't always fair, because not all of the information or costs are
available.


Is this fair? Will the Marriott kill us? Will we survive the next two
years, between them and the new $80 million dollar casino hotel they're
building just south of town? I have no idea -- but I'll keep swinging
for the fences in the meantime.

That's capitalism -- and I don't want my kids teachers sugar-coating
it. All that will do is weaken them for their upcoming battle, in a
field called "life".

If the hotel was built with public funds, then this isn't capitalism.

Matt

Jose wrote:

Capitalism is ruthlessly fair. It treats everyone the same, regardless
of race, creed, or political affiliation. It is the ultimate
democracy, and its basic rules are immutable.


No, it is not.

Capitalism is sort of mostly fair when it's practiced by equals. But
capitalism makes some powerful and some not. The next generation
inherets this, and at that point it becomes inherently unfair.

Small companies are far more influenced by individuals than large ones.
This allows large ones to get away with more. If they become large
enough to become monopolistic and get away with it, the key has been
thrown out.

Large companies can purchase more votes than small ones, or individuals,
and those votes keep them large and influential, despite any quality
issues with their products. WalMart, with its decrees about RFID tags,
may well be the biggest threat to privacy there is, but it is largely
unstoppable because there is little of equivalent size with sufficient
coherency to fight it.

Nobody forces anybody to shop at Wal-Mart. If people are worried about
their privacy, they can simply shop elsewhere. That will correct the
problem quickly.

Matt

Martin Hotze wrote:

"Jay Honeck" wrote:


Honestly, you have to pass a test to drive a car, but there is no
"minimum requirement" for reproducing. Imagine what a lovely world it
could be, if only some basic skills were required of every human before
they had children?


yup. And you need someone to set the rules ...

maybe someone sets the rule to only allow blond haired and blue eyed people
to reproduce ...
or maybe kill 'unworthy' life like people in wheelchairs or mentally ill.


doesn't it all sound too familiar?

Yep, and we definitely shouldn't go there. Jay just wrote the above in
a moment of weakness. :-)

Matt

In article .com,
"Andrew Sarangan" wrote:

Childhood immunizations. There are no children turned away without
immunization anywhere in America. There *are*, however, millions of
criminally stupid parents who don't GET their children immunized.

Explain that to the parents whose kids became
paralyzed/retarted/infected/died as a direct result of vaccines. I
know, the probability of that happening is low, but if it happens to
YOUR kid, it doesn't matter what that mathematical probability is. The
ones who actively choose not to immunize have taken steps to become
educated about the risks and benefits of vaccines than the vast
majority who blindly follow what the doc says.

are you serious? you think everyone who doesn't immunize has thought this
through?

Try explaining to a
widow whose husband died in a small plane crash why everyone who
doesn't fly are criminally stupid, because flying is a vey safe
activity. As you know, flying is a calculated risk and a choice. You
can't force that upon everyone just because you and the FAA think it is
safe.

cripes. The vaccine is to prevent a deadly disease. Flying doesn't
prevent death (except maybe being bored to death by a non-flying
"life"). To use that as an example or arguement is dumb.

--
Bob Noel
Looking for a sig the
lawyers will hate

Jose wrote:

Capitalism is sort of mostly fair when it's practiced by equals. But
capitalism makes some powerful and some not. The next generation
inherets this, and at that point it becomes inherently unfair.

Nothing in life guarantees you "fairness". Just exactly what is 'fair'?
What you define or what Jay defines it as... or what the government
defines it as... what how Fidel Castro defines it as?

Sorry, but whenever someone intervenes into the 'fairness' game
things go to hell.

Montblack wrote:
("Emily" wrote)
As someone smarter than many people in the world, I say yes.


Many ...meaning 100?
Many ...meaning 10,000?
Many ...meaning 1,000,000?

Let's assign "many" the value ...650,000,000. g

Hey, it was just an observation I made after my daily commute.

In article .com,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Childhood immunizations. There are no children turned away without
immunization anywhere in America. There *are*, however, millions of
criminally stupid parents who don't GET their children immunized.

Wasn't the recent measles outbreak carried into the United States/Iowa
by an unvaccinated child who became infected in England?

Nobody forces anybody to shop at Wal-Mart. If people are worried about their privacy, they can simply shop elsewhere. That will correct the problem quickly.

That works, so long as there is an "elsewhere". As the larger companies
gobble up the smaller ones, the number of "elsewheres" diminishes, and
the power of the individual to affect WalMart by shopping elsewhere
diminishes. It is an unstable slope with a stable end point - Walmart
or nothing.

As for privacy, you missed the point entirely. The scenario is: Walmart
requires RFID tags. Companies respond by putting them in all their
products (because it's cheaper to put it in everywhere than it is to
selectively leave them out). So, even if you buy from the corner drug
store, you walk around with an RFID tag on everything.

It's not here yet, but it's very close.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

Nothing in life guarantees you "fairness".

True enough. But the claim was made that capitalism is "fair". I
refute that claim. Nothing more.

Jose
--
The monkey turns the crank and thinks he's making the music.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

what will you (OK, you can fuel auto-gas) do when they announce that avgas
will be taken from the market within the next - let's say - 12 months?

Why would *that* happen?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"