[ale] [OT] Ga. Power & the "Flat Rate Plan"

[Damon L. Chesser]

On Wed, 2010-02-24 at 08:50 -0500, Lightner, Jeff wrote:
> Sorry I don't agree with that.
> 
> Capitalism is the one system that recognizes that in general people work for their own self interest.  Communism is fine as an ideal but it misses this point completely because it has built into it the idea that everyone will work for the common good and that just doesn't happen.  The best you can do is hope that you can convince someone that what you're asking them to do directly benefits them as well as the common good.  It doesn't mean that no one ever does some self sacrifice or charity but rather than very few people are going to be like Mother Teresa or Albert Schweitzer.
> 
> The funny thing to me is that there is so much dependence on "Project Management" in business these days.  It espouses that same common good ideal when uses people from different departments.  
> 
> Don't get me wrong - I'm not a neo-con by any stretch of the imagination and don't believe in "unrestrained" capitalism but rather "managed" capitalism.  The former gave us the society where we had 20 millionaires and everyone else working 16 hours a day for $1.   The economic melt down at the end of Dubya's 8 years showed us once again that "unrestrained" capitalism and "trickle down economics" are very bad ideas for most of us.   In the long run they're even bad for the people at the top though most of them are too short sighted to see it.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Michael B. Trausch
> Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 12:23 AM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] [OT] Ga. Power & the "Flat Rate Plan"
> 
> On 02/23/2010 06:30 PM, Damon L. Chesser wrote:
> >> Capitalism is great until it's_YOU_  on the short end of it!
> > As opposed to what?
> 
> Oh, say, any of the _other_ economic systems out there?[1]
> 
> 	--- Mike
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_system
> 

Pretty much my point.  I mean, how much of my life is someone else
entitled to? 5%, 10%, 50%?  Why should I *have* to pay for someone else.
I should (and do) give to others who are not as wealthy as myself, and I
am NOT wealthy.  I give at least 10% of my income away, ontop of taxes.
But I should not *have* to support anybody else.  An amazing fact:  if
you want to be in the top 75% of wealthy people, have $1500 in the bank,
free and clear.  Congrats, 75% of the people in the world do not have
that much in assets.  We are rich in this country.  A place where poor
people are routinely over weight, have two tvs, cell phones and cars.
You may starve to death, but you have to really, really want to.  It
sure as hell was not the Gov. that made it that way and it sure as hell
was not socialism or communism that made it that way.

If you stop and aske "How much of my life, ability, income, work is
someone else ENTITLED to?"  I think you will find you are not opposed to
capitalism.  If you think others are, then just give me 50% of all you
have worked for, for your entire life, and we can call it even.

My 2c worth.

-- 
Damon
damon at damtek.com