From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Apr 10 2003 - 15:38:14 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
>Charles writes
>
>
>
>>[Lee wrote]
>>
>>
>>>I've never seen a society getting richer that got (internally) worse.
>>>
>>>
>...
>
>>>In the historical cases I know of, namely the West, the "elite"
>>>we are discussing here who makes all the money does so with no
>>>more moral laxity than animates the general person in the
>>>population. Surely you don't believe that the rich got their
>>>money because they're evil.
>>>
>>>
>> ....
>
>Lee
>
OK. Now that we've clarified details... Yes, for certain definitions of
evil, I believe that more than a minor part of the "elite" earned their
fortune through evil. Here we are talking more about deceit than force
or fraud, but those also played a part. Consider, to pick a
particularly well documented example, the trans-continental railroads.
The particular thing they were building was a very worthwhile
construction, but the financing of it involved considerable chicanery,
political manipulation, etc. Evil is a stronger word than I would
choose, but corruption, deceit, and fraud were certainly involved. And
some assault, and conspiracty to comit assault with deadly weapons, etc.
when it comes to labor negotiations. And these were upright an moral
compared to the mine bosses, the slave owners, etc.
N.B.: I draw a strong distinction between legal and moral. Slave
owning, e.g., was at one time perfectly legal, but it was never moral.
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
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