First — Read the blog entry and the first comment here.
The second comment is here:
This is typical of the mean-spirited attitudes which are increasingly
previlant. Everything is based on money and punishment. Fortunately,
such cultures eventually destroy themselves
OK, So charging for a service provided is now mean spirited. It is also mean spirited to set up rules that people are supposed to follow and then punishing them when they don’t. Huh?
Lets see if we can come up with some recent free market societies that destroyed themselves — USSR – no, not free market – Nazi Germany — whoops — Fascist Italy — non – Imperial Japan – no — How bout Canada — not destroyed, and free market — Britain, Ireland, USA, Post War Japan, Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, Western Europe (they are having problems as they reduce free market activity and have government take over the economy) Eastern Europe — booming, due to the free market — and even Russia, with all its problems, is moving rapidly be letting the free market work. China has discovered that the free market is the only economic system that can survive (they saw what happened in Russia.)…
So what has happened is that countries that let the free market flourish have healthy economies where people have ever increasing standards of living, lower birth rates, better health, housing, food, clothing, and free time. Countries that try to control their economies (like Cuba, North Korea, Most of Africa,) are dirt poor and starving. Is that mean spirited? I’m not certain the average person in India would trade their lives today for their lives 30 years ago, Ditto Japan, South Korea, Singapore, most of southeast Asia. etc.
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day — teach a man to fish, you feed him forever.
The commenter feels with his heart. He feels the pain of the downtrodden. The question is just how to help them. Opportunity, that helps them. a growing economy, that helps them.
You get the idea.
JVH
