DearDiary.2003-07-02
The days go by too fast. A month feels like a week. :)
I just got around to reading the debates on AnewGo, NewLaw, DeclarationOfExistenceDiscussion, and ExtraLaw. It seems to me that (1) AnewGo doesn't have a very supportive base right now, and (2) That StarPilot realized the real reason for PhillipBannigan creating AnewGo.
- StarPilot knew why PhillipBannigan created AnewGo. However, I didn't see that matter as having any relevance to what WE were using AnewGo for. However, there were a few debates where the difference in what PhillipBannigan seemed to be after through it versus what I thought we were after for the WE did seem to need discussion. ;) ---StarPilot.
Summers still too hot now I'm wishing for the rainstorms back.......
--KenSchry
So I was sitting around the break room eating my lunch with several of my co-workers when before you know it I was standing on my soap box making seemingly grand assertions regarding the nature of wealth. At the end of my diatribe I wrapped it all up by saying poverty is a reality based on illusions. Nothing truly prevents us from giving all of us a chance at a reasonably comfortable lifestyle. All the barriers are software, attitudes, biases, fear, mistrust etc. based on misinformation.
After a moment of respectful consideration my friend says, "I want to understand the economics of poverty." Any ideas? ---DavidSiegel
If this thread gets any attention at all we'll move it to a new location.
It seems to me that there could be a couple of responses to your friend. You could say the nature of poverty is a cycle from wealth, the balance and system of economics. You could say poverty is literally the same as riches, except in reverse. I thought for a bit, and came up with a theory, but it really doesn't make much sense. What if poverty and wealth is just an illusion? Smoke from a meaningless fire in life? Iernos... have to think about this... --KenSchry
To understand something is to know all of its dimensions. To not know this is intellectual poverty. In Jamaica I saw families living high on the hog without income where food falls off the trees. This is not poverty, it is utopian paradise. True economic poverty reflects the misuse of our rich resources. Distributing the wealth can only bring poverty to everyone. To conquer poverty we must invest our resources in the creation of value.
-- JimScarver
Money is an illusion. I believe that very subject has been covered here many times, in different places.
However, wealth and poverty are not illusions. What is poverty? The lacking of certain resources, and the lack of social opportunities. What is wealth? Having more resources then needed, and a rich environment for social opportunities.
When you have to work 12 hours a day to make enough money just to feed your children and yourself for the day, that is poverty. When you do not have to worry about where the next year's worth of meals will come from, that is wealth. The social opportunities and their richness, or lack of, are a function that derive from this simple matter, as driven through human's selfish nature (from base biology of reproductive drives to higher, self absorded centers of contemplation of meetings one intellectual needs).
In any real world setting, the limit on resources will generate ZeroSumGame aspects. You cannot have a rich city in RW resources without it depriving other cities of those same resources. And any intellectually based, illusionary wealth measures, such as money, is a relativity; this again will act and respond similar to a ZeroSumGame.
One can be impoverished, and still lead a very happy, successful, and rewarding life. Just as being rich in wealth does not guarantee a happy, successful, rewarding life. We are primarily emotional beings, so once the very basic physical needs of survival is met, our emotional life is the biggest factor on whether we are good humans, or unhappy ones. Not whether or not we have two or three Rolls Royce vehicles in our garages, but whether we have loving friends and family. In the focus on gaining more material wealth people lose track why they want more money; namely, it is a useful tool to allow us to spend more time pursuing our emotional lives and needs.
---StarPilot