Re: I am glad Eliezer understands about gratitude and the randomness of life...

From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Tue Jan 11 2000 - 16:09:54 MST


John Grigg continues,
>As J.R. pointed out, those who are not only talented but ambitious and
>successful do deserve the fruits of their labors (a key reason why communism
>failed) I do think they should help the less fortunate. How to best do this
>is the question.

If you have two engines for producing kenetic energy, and one engine has twice
the talent for this that the other has, which one deserves more good fuel? That
might help to explain why the talented "deserve more of the good things in the
world." They deserve more, because they yield a higher ROI. They deserve more
because they give more. (You can't tell if they have talent unless they produce
something.) If Weinberg really couldn't figure that out for himself, what a
silly trick he has played on his readers.

                 --<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--

"The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate
the man who is better off than you are. Never under any circumstances admit
that his success may be due to his own efforts, to the productive
contribution he has made to the whole community. Always attribute his
success to the exploitation, the cheating, the more or less open robbery of
others. Never under any circumstances admit that your own failure may be
owing to your own weakness, or that the failure of anyone else may be due to
his own defects -- his laziness, incompetence, improvidence, or
stupidity." --Henry Hazlitt



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