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Old 07-01-2004, 05:39 PM   #151 (permalink)
smooth
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Location: Right here
Quote:
Originally posted by wonderwench
For or against us are your words not mine; but I will admit to using rather absolutist language. It is one of my charms.

I just fail to comprehend how the government redistributing wealth benefits society. We have several decades of failed programs which indicate the contrary.
Actually, they're the president's words.

Our country's very own short history are loaded with examples of how "redistribution" have benefitted society. First one to come to mind: the resuscitation of capitalism during the New Deal.

EDIT: I also want to add that I find it strange all these tech innovations are being attributed to the wealthy. Our growth happened in spurts, first of all. It began, as I believe someone already pointed out but was promptly ignored, when people began to grab fertile land for "free" (we'll table the notion that other people owned it for now).

Later, those landholders got "free" laborers to work that land (there's a nasty word for this, but free labor is really the main point here).

Then a lot of history happened, but most people don't know it, so why reiterate it, and _whomp_ we needed a middle class to save our crumbling economy and squelch public uprising and dissent (the innovators were sitting on their hard working asses and all the stuff "they" overproduced but no one could purchase cuz there wasn't any jobs to be had). Off to war the men go, into the factories the women get to be, and back to college we went, and bammo--presto magico we have a whole new crop of talent in the wide world of USA. That's your innovation, BTW, all those soldiers who came back from war and got a higher education from the GI Bill (one of those pesky redistribution schemes) coupled with a hefty dose of copulation and a population explosion.
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Last edited by smooth; 07-01-2004 at 05:49 PM..
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