Re: A Challenge To All Extropians

Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Fri, 15 May 1998 20:39:34 -0700

Paul Hughes:
>If their conclusion is the latter, then it's a major blow to any free-market
>principle. At this point, why would the rest of us give a damn about
>free-markets when it means increasing numbers of people will suffer? If they
>are standing behind their principles of insisting on free-markets despite the
>large loss of human life, what does this say about them? This is the *real*
>isssue I'm forcing.

The flaw in all this is the assumption that the fate of the poor is deeper
poverty. Yes, the rich get richer, and faster than the poor get richer,
and if the rich get richer faster, the rich accumulate an increasing
fraction of all the wealth - so eventually the top 1% may have 99% of the
resources, but the average wealth of the bottom 1% in the future may be
where the top 10% are now. To paraphrase George Orwell, we all get more
prosperous, and some of us prosper more than others...

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| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> |
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 |
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| Death is for animals; |
| immortality for gods. |
| Technology is the means by |
| which we make the transition. |
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