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Post 0

Sunday, December 17, 2006 - 10:45amSanction this postReply
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Very insightful.

I wonder if Jane Jacobs has read Rand, who would say the same thing. According to Objectivism, wealth has to be produced, in the absence of which, poverty is man's natural state.

You've heard the old adage, "the best things in life are free." Nothing could be further from the truth. Life itself isn't free. In order to be sustained, it requires work, effort, productivity. To gain the benefits, you have to incur the cost. You have to pay the price, either by producing a value directly or by producing something to exchange for it. Yet, today people say that the most vital goods and services -- those most necessary for life, like medical care -- should be free, which simply means that someone else should produce them either directly or indirectly and give them away at no cost. The people who are demanding free medical care are claiming that the providers have no right to be paid for their services, because that's what "free" means in this context. It means that consumers get a value without having to pay for it. It means that the providers should be forced to work for nothing, which is slavery.

Another adage that we often hear is that "Poverty causes crime." In fact, it's just the opposite. Crime causes poverty, because people whose property is robbed or vandalized are made poorer to the extent of the losses inflicted on them. Victims of physical assault are made poorer to the extent that their injuries incapacitate them from earning a living and add to their medical expenses.

Even the criminals are made poorer, because of their time in jail and because a criminal record makes it far more difficult for an ex-con to find gainful employment. The ones who are lucky enough to avoid detection must worry about being arrested and are at high risk of being victimized by other criminals.

So, there is a sense in which poverty does have a cause, the sense in which people by their own malfeasance can impoverish themselves by neglecting their only means for overcoming poverty -- the creation of wealth; not the mooching or looting of wealth, but its actual creation. That is the only way to overcome poverty. The sooner people realize this and begin to vote the looters and their representatives out of office, the better off they'll be.

- Bill

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Post 1

Sunday, December 17, 2006 - 11:00amSanction this postReply
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A moral thing to do is to teach children that poverty is caused by lazy adults. 
Ciro


Post 2

Sunday, December 17, 2006 - 11:29amSanction this postReply
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Bill wrote: "Even the criminals are made poorer"

Only if they are caught & justice is served, which is too commonly not the case.

Post 3

Sunday, December 17, 2006 - 2:35pmSanction this postReply
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The people who are demanding free medical care are claiming that the providers have no right to be paid for their services, because that's what "free" means in this context. It means that consumers get a value without having to pay for it. It means that the providers should be forced to work for nothing, which is slavery.

This falls back on the erroneous notion of 'intrinsic values', from which one then claims life - especially human life - has itself an intrinsic value, and thus needs the medical care, regardless of the consequences....


Post 4

Monday, January 15, 2007 - 1:55amSanction this postReply
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Sure povery has cause. Look at Maoist China. For a closer to home example, look at people's dependency on welfare.

On a more somber note, look at Katrina. Then again that's an emergency situation and I really don't expect a quote to take that into account.

Post 5

Monday, January 15, 2007 - 7:47amSanction this postReply
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Poverty is our natural state. Prosperity is not.


Post 6

Monday, January 15, 2007 - 12:52pmSanction this postReply
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Poverty is our natural state. Prosperity is not.


Not quite - poverty is where we  start from.....  prosperity is where we head to.....


It is the means of the flourishing of being human....

(Edited by robert malcom on 1/15, 12:54pm)


Post 7

Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - 10:58amSanction this postReply
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Bill,

I clicked that little check mark on Post 0 (which I take it means you get some kind of point?) What I mean to say is "Delightful post"

Michael, thank you for a bringing that gem out for us.

I agree completely with the spirit expressed and appreciate the fact that prosperity must be created. But on a technical level, my nitpicky nerd side says that poverty can be caused. Just practice faith and initiate force. Prosperity that does exist will begin turning into poverty.

And I like Robert's keen observation. Poverty is not our natural state - it is just where we start from. Our natural state is a process - making prosperity.

Although not in the same class as that Jacobs' quote, I like something a McMurtry novel character said: "Even poor people can keep their yards picked up."

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