In article <1993Apr20.202749.9007@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Tree of Schnopia) writes: > >Wow, I hadn't realized how VENOMOUS this was getting!  Be careful here...the >problem isn't the rich but the values and the systems that make the rich >rich.    But the "values and systems that make the rich rich" all basically   amount to freedom of choice.     In New England in 1800 the entire economy was based on the small family   farm.   Farm economy households were economically diversified, producing   not only agricultural goods but also "manufactured" goods, especially    cloth.  Many farm women carded, spun, and/or wove, producing not only   cloth for their own family but also to sell, generating extra income.    But about this time the Industrial Revolution was underway in England   and by the 1820's it had moved to the US, in both cases in the form    of textile mills.  These mills could produce cloth far more efficiently   and cheaply than people at home.      The result was that an important source of home income was wiped out   and many of these women were compelled by economic circumstance to    go to work in these same mills in Lowell, Mass, or Nashua, NH, where   they worked 73 hour weeks in deafening, dangerous conditions, living    regimented lives and being exposed to cotton-dust and infectious dis-   eases due to the work.    Now people didn't *HAVE* to buy the cheaper factory-made cloth.    They were free to keep buying the home-made variety and support   their local economy . . .   > Things are designed in such a way that in order to go with the system >and make money, everything ELSE we care about goes to shit.    . . . but (sorry for the cliche), "it takes two to tango".   The big   rich corporations achieved that wealth because we buy their stuff.   It used to be the case that the business center of a town was also    its social center.  You KNEW the merchants you did business with    or even local kids working behind the counter.   You would see   people on the street whom you knew and you could stop for a chat.    Nowadays local merchants are going out of business and people shop    at huge anonymous malls serving regional populations of hundreds of   thousands or millions.  You have no particular relationship with the   companies you do business with, and feel no particular commitment   to them, nor they to you.   Major components of what defines a "com-   munity" have been destroyed.   On the other hand the products we buy   at these malls are a lot cheaper due to economies of scale and foreign   manufacture, and they are probably of better, or at least more consistent,   quality.   >                                                           I have to >constantly remind myself that the goal of human society is not to make >money.  Money doesn't make us happy; it just prevents certain things making >us more unhappy. > >Therefore, don't shoot the rich.  Shoot the conservatives!    Don't blame the conservatives for this.  Everyone makes their own   individual choice and the liberals and the fence-sitters are just   as guilty of pretending there are no social and cultural consequences   to economic choices.