🚀 go-pugleaf

Ronald Paul Menich (rmenich@ix.netcom.com) wrote:
: In <D939Gr.8KK@watserv3.uwaterloo.ca> ascott@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (Alan
: Scott) writes: 
: >
: >The free market tends to favour the materialistic philosophy.  The 
: >democratic process is the only way the middle class can speak up for
: >themselves and participate in something on such a large scale.  
: >The space program is therefore by mandate of the people through their
: >elected representatives.  
: >This is also the problem of the free market since it doesn't operate
: well
: >with democracy.  It tends to concentrate wealth in only a few pockets.
: >It would prefer `one dollar, one vote' rather than the present system.
: 
: 
: Person A pays $5,000/yr in taxes.  Person B pays $20,000/yr in taxes.
: That is, person B has contributed four times as much as person A.
: Yet, when they go to the polls, person A gets one vote and
: person B gets one vote.  Despite the fact that person B has 
: contributed to the government far more than person A, he gets
: no more say in how that money will be spent.
: THAT'S NOT FAIR !!

Why should wealth and political power go hand in hand? Maybe Person
B isn't brighter/more hard-working/more successful/"Better" than 
Person A ... he merely happens to have a rich dad who can afford to send him 
to the best schools (Yale, Oxbridge or wherever) etc.. Whereas Person A might
have been raised in the inner cities, by parents who never could afford to
send him to college. Thus, Person B gets unfair _inherited_ opportunities 
Person A never gets...unless you introduce scholarships and similar things
to help gifted, underprivileged people.
---
IMHO, this is why some redistribution of wealth and "one man-one vote" are 
essential if democracy is to survive. Uncontrolled capitalism leads to
a divided society where wealth and poverty are inherited, not necessarily
because "good" people become richer while "bad" people fare less well.

 
: -- 
: 
: ******************************************************************
: Ronald P. Menich
: Applied Probabilist
: 6839 Lockridge Drive
: Doraville, GA 30360
: 
: These words are my own and do not reflect
: those of my employer, Failure Analysis Associates, Inc.

-- 
MARCU$

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