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Matthew Gertner scripsit: > The good news is that the > combination of democracy and capitalism demonstrably works, we've solved a > lot of the problems inherent in naive approaches to capitalism and continue > to do so. It "works" for a small minority of the world's population. The rest are in the same grinding poverty *or worse* that they've ever been in. > (http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1045223 -- like > a good reactionary I read reactionary rags) that points out that purely > selfish behavior based on this principle can lead to altruistic behavior on > the macro level. Good news for everyone, I say. Yes, indeed, and very interesting. > The bottom line is that we have made more political and economic progress in > the past century than in the millenium that preceded it, and this has led to > massively less disease and poverty for maybe a quarter of the world's > population. The only way to spread this benefit to the neglected three > quarters is to continue on the path of capitalism, democracy and free trade. Well and good -- *if* we had those things. The Blessings-Of-Civilization Trust, as Mark Twain called it, is more in the habit of spreading massive inequality, authoritarian rule, and "protectionism at home, free trade abroad" -- the qualities of large corporations. -- John Cowan <jcowan@r...> http://www.reutershealth.com I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith. --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_
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