[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Sounds good to me ;)
Jeme A Brelin
jeme at brelin.net
Wed Jun 19 02:02:46 UTC 2002
On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, Craighead, Scot D wrote:
> It is not greed to want to keep what is properly yours.
Probably the disagreement here is on what can be considered "properly
yours". I don't consider "legally" and "properly" to be synonymous (nor
do I believe that the majority of the consolidated wealth was obtained
legally).
> It is immoral to take what is not yours.
I'm with you there, but, again, the disagreement is in the difference
between what you can rightfully call yours and what you cannot.
> It does not justify you to take some of mine because you choose to sow
> less than I did.
You're attributing reasons that are not evidence.
A person is justified in taking some of what another claims if the other
has no rightful claim. To my way of thinking, a claim of need is stronger
than a claim of want or simply a claim of possession and control. Those
other claims only come into consideration after the claims of need have
been resolved.
> Furthermore, I have a right to pass what I have accumulated to my
> children when I die.
And they have a right to what their parents have accumulated, by and
by. Yes? And power begets power, wealth begets wealth.
This is the game we've been playing pretty rigidly in the first world for
the past fifteen or twenty years. In that time, wealth has consolidated,
the rich are getting richer (both absolutely and relatively) and the poor
are getting poor (again, both absolutely and relatively). More people
have less and the trend continues.
That system allows for the occassional mercurial rise from poor to rich
and the occassional fall from rich to poor, but the mass of men continue
to live lives of increasing poverty, desperation, and want.
Better, don't you think, to encourage cooperation, sharing, and the
limitation of realty and personalty to need? I'm not supporting a
particular set of laws and I'm not supporting taking without mutual
consent. I'm trying to express the notion that having more than you can
use is destructive to those who have less than they need. I'm trying to
encourage charity, generosity, kindness and respect and that, in turn,
will promote openness, freedom, and abundance.
The system you describe encourages greed, selfishness, imprisonment, and
poverty.
J.
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Jeme A Brelin
jeme at brelin.net
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[cc] counter-copyright
http://www.openlaw.org
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