From: bab@se39.wg2.waii.com (Brian Button)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: People Are Nice
Date: 10 Nov 92 20:45:47 GMT
Distribution: tx
Organization: Western Geophysical Exploration Products
In-reply-to: bchan@tworaven.lonestar.org's message of 8 Nov 92 08:07:07 GMT

->"Bob" == bchan  <bchan@tworaven.lonestar.org> writes:

   Bob> Well, I say SCREW PROFIT and SCREW WEALTH as well. I'm poor
   Bob> and I like it, at least in terms of material wealth. My
   Bob> attitude: we were put here to enjoy life...and that means NOT
   Bob> WORKING, or at least not working at a "job". People should
   Bob> rise up in anger at the thought of toiling away all day for
   Bob> the privelege of eating regularly.

In that case, exactly where is the food going to come from? Are
farmers excluded from your paradise? How about the farm workers, food
packers, truckers, oil drillers, road builders, police, gas-station
attendants, et cetera, ad nauseam.

   Bob> "Oh, but there ain't no free lunch", they'll tell you.
   Bob> Bullshit.  That's a quote from a bad science-fiction novel,

I disagree with this statement right off the bat. I rather enjoyed
Nivens's "Tales of Known Space" series :)

   Bob> not a statement of economic fact.  The fact is that enough
   Bob> exists RIGHT THIS MINUTE for everyone on Earth to enjoy a
   Bob> clean, fun, healthy, and affluent lifestyle, and work less or
   Bob> even not at all to get it. A fruit tree is a perfect example
   Bob> of a free lunch machine: give it free sunlight, your bad
   Bob> breath, and the waste from your body, and it will go on
   Bob> producing FREE LUNCHES for you indefinitely.  Just remember to
   Bob> spit out and bury the seeds and you've got free lunch forever.
   Bob> We can build machines that will be our "fruit trees" and
   Bob> produce food, housing, clothing, and toys so cheaply it will
   Bob> easier to just GIVE them away than to sell them.

Who is going to build these machines if everyone else is sitting down
to their free food, housing, clothing, and toys?

   Bob> FREE LUNCH EXISTS. SIT DOWN AND EAT IT.

You can't make something out of nothing. This lunch of yours must have
been created somehow. And once it was created, how was it transported
from its birthplace to your plate?

   Bob> We must destroy the false god of Wealth before we can raise
   Bob> the human spirit to its rightful place above the altar. We can
   Bob> do that by guaranteeing every man, woman, and child a decent
   Bob> living as their fair share of our planet, without forcing them
   Bob> to sell themselves as wage slaves, replaceable "human
   Bob> resources", grist for some wolf-in-human-clothing's profit
   Bob> mill. EVERYONE DESERVES A GOOD LIFE JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE
   Bob> HUMAN. PERIOD.

I repeat : who is going to build these things?

If every man, woman, and child is living in their own private
paradise, who is going to grow the food that they need to eat? Who is
going to build the railroads and trucks which will transport the food
to them? Who is going to produce the oil that is used to power the
trucks used to transport the food. Are you picking up a pattern here?

Someone has to be a wage-slave in someelse's profit mill, or we'll all
be reduced to sitting around our bearskin tents, contemplating our
navels. I contend that everyone deserves a chance to earn a good life
for themselves and their families JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE HUMAN. PERIOD.

   Bob> Clear enough? I'm ready. Let's join together and figure it
   Bob> out.

   Bob> "The world owes you a living, and every day should be payday."

The world owes you an opportunity. The payday's are up to you.

bab
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