Bad luck
mark94
Arizona
“Throughout history,” Robert Heinlein wrote in 1973, “poverty is the normal condition of man.”
“Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people.”
“Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.”
“This,” Heinlein added, “is known as ‘bad luck.’”
All those “right-thinking people”—the people with the socially certified ideas, the kinder, gentler, mask-wearing, anti-fossil-fuel types—are on the ramparts, proudly toppling the atavistic instruments of their prosperity.
“Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded—here and there, now and then—are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people.”
“Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.”
“This,” Heinlein added, “is known as ‘bad luck.’”
All those “right-thinking people”—the people with the socially certified ideas, the kinder, gentler, mask-wearing, anti-fossil-fuel types—are on the ramparts, proudly toppling the atavistic instruments of their prosperity.
30 comments
All else is surplusage, excrescence, adornment, luxury, or folly which can - and must - be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function.
As racial (human race) survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible.
Attempts to formulate a “perfect society" on any foundation other than "Women and children
first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal.
Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly - and no doubt will keep trying."
~ Robert Anson Heinlein
~ Engineer Lieutenant USN - Novelist
~ Born July 7, 1907 Butler, Missouri, U.S.
~ Died May 8, 1988 Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, U.S.
I don't get it. Who are examples of people (men) who tried to formulate a perfect society that was genocidal? And why are they always male? I am not really familiar with this kind of stuff but sounds interesting.
We're somewhere between #3 and #4.
Poverty is endemic of capitalism. Forcing people off common land and into wage servitude for an exploiting class
Poverty is a lack of the basic necessities of life.
Capitalism brought billions out of poverty.
Also, sorry, I had to chime in: AA loses heads up about 15% of the time (that's another player shoving 27o on up) regardless of number of people at table. Vs another solid hand like KK, QQ, AK+, I think it goes to about 20%
All in?
Only when head to head.
Does Pinochet give you a bigger hard on than thatcher?
You're a poster child for a self hating minority
Capitalism brought billions out of extreme poverty. Given you this Internet and this phone from which you trash it.
But yes, it creates inequality. Because we aren't equal. You're a loser, locked out of its benefits, because of your own lack of brains and initiative. And losers gonna lose.
@Tetradon
“Poverty is a lack of the basic necessities of life.
Capitalism brought billions INTO poverty.”
You are welcome.
Deng's embrace of the free market, after Maoism, brought a billion out of poverty in China alone.
Socialism is the creed of envious losers.
There's that matter of "food insecurity" which was the norm before capitalism and the exception now.
Lulz.
~ Socrates
Most of our past and current “western” Economic Systems create Poverty, Greed, Violence, Disease, and Environmental Destruction
"There is enough in the world for everyone's
need, but not enough for everyone's greed."
~ Frank Buchman aka (Franklin Nathaniel Daniel Buchman)
~ Decorated by the French and German governments for his contributions to Franco-German reconciliation after World War II.
~ Born June 4, 1878 Pennsburg, Pennsylvania
~ Died August 7, 1961 Freudenstadt, West Germany