once again, this is not a political thread.
the question assumes that the distrubution of wealth is a kind of natural fact, that the accumulation of wealth is a form of adaptation that can be understood on social darwinist lines. ustwo is not raising questions about his view of the social distribution of wealth, about the nature of his way of framing the question he poses.
like the template for this kind of argument--limbaugh--ustwo removes economic activity from the political.
and--again like the limbaugh template--the only thing that makes the thread political is that he chose to put it in politics.
it is only within ustwo's particular frame of reference that the correlation of external features (possession of wealth) with (arbitrary) subjective attributes (wisdom and other predicates traditionally imputed to an elite class) even begins to make sense.
and because for ustwo this correlation is not open to debate, there is no philosophical dimension to this thread either.
so far we have eliminated both politics and philosophy.
the op is not even talking about economics in a traditional-ish sense of the term--he is not interested in political economy, not interested in a comprehensive image, not interested in questions that might pertain to the definition of the economic as a discrete sphere of human activity, not even interested in ways of trying to isolate dynamics in general---the view of economics he outlines is focussed exclusively on tactics within a framework that is not itself open to question.
ustwo seems to want reassurance about his particular assumptions (i trust rich people because they are my betters) and to publicize his particular choices of adaptive behaviour (he read some manuals about wealth generation----which, because these manuals typically treat the environment as neutral or given and then proceed to discuss tactics within that environment--they too function to distance the thread from any contact with politics, philosophy or political philosophy)....
this is a finance thread.
maybe a lifestyle thread (the underlying question: how important are class stereotypes to you im making investment decisions?)
but it is not politics.
and it should be moved.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
Last edited by roachboy; 12-04-2005 at 10:01 AM..
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