Cobol - Re: US Presidents; an outside view WAS: Any comments? (Evolution

Author

Re: US Presidents; an outside view WAS: Any comments? (Evolution - was Answers to P

Howard Brazee

2006-04-20, 6:55 pm

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:11:48 GMT, "Oliver Wong" <owong@castortech.com>
wrote:

> I think money is a zero sum game. If someone is "winning", someone has
>to be "losing".

I don't think so. It is so for players on an NFL team, but not in
the real world. There is some merit in the Trickle Down theory,
despite the hay the Democrats made from it. Move a factory into a
town where people are starving and the rich don't start missing meals
in order to feed the newly hired workers. Everybody is better off.

Times change. I know a guy who bought an expensive mansion built a
hundred years ago, and he had to figure out how to put a kitchen in
the same floor as the dining area - he can afford to spend millions on
a house, but can't afford servants. In Agatha Christie's
autobiography, she mentions that as a child she didn't expect ever to
be rich enough to afford an automobile - or so poor that she couldn't
afford live-in servants.

But we have more stuff. If "winning" is having more stuff than your
neighbor, then you're right - you either win or lose. If "winning"
is having enough so you would be happy if your richer neighbor was
poor, then it's not a zero sum game.

Even when you compare with your neighbor, you find that it isn't
linear. Your neighbor wins when they go on a vacation in New
Zealand. But you win when you buy a new car. Your other neighbor
wins when he builds a new porch. We make different choices.

Even if we were all billionaires, we couldn't do even a tiny
percentage of the fun stuff we want to do.

Howard Brazee

2006-04-25, 6:55 pm

On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:51:38 +1200, "Pete Dashwood"
<dashwood@enternet.co.nz> wrote:

>
>Added value is an illusion.
>

If food isn't more valuable to you than seeds, then I expect you won't
be posting much longer.

Pete Dashwood

2006-04-27, 7:55 am

"Howard Brazee" <howard@brazee.net> wrote in message
news:v5cs4251us8rknuj4ano1degclnke2rvsp@
4ax.com...
> On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:51:38 +1200, "Pete Dashwood"
> <dashwood@enternet.co.nz> wrote:
>
>
> If food isn't more valuable to you than seeds, then I expect you won't
> be posting much longer.
>
Yeah, right...(what is it now...eight years?.. nine...? Do I look like
stopping anytime soon :-))

I have no illusions about the value of mine (or anybody else's) posts
here... :-)

Hey, it's MY universe... I can value what I like...

Pete.

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