1. some people are just plain lucky, and it's too bad if you're not. some people make a fortune gambling, and hey, i'm not one of them. those kind of rich people don't bother me.
FearsomePirate: 2. some people are incredibly smart/industrious. they make a lot of money. also doesn't bother me. most of the wealthy people i know are either smart businessmen or doctors.
FearsomePirate: 3. some people are dishonest crooks. i think they should get taken for all they're worth, like the president of enron.
FearsomePirate: 4. most people are middle class, and should be.
FearsomePirate: 5. some people are poor because they're lazy. to them, i say "tough shit."
FearsomePirate: 6. some people are poor because they have no access to education whatsoever, and are victimized by public school administration who wage political wars instead of teaching reading & math
FearsomePirate: which is why i think publicly-funded education should always be an option, but the current system sucks.
PinkMoosePearl: you know what i think about 6
PinkMoosePearl: and you are forgetting 7
FearsomePirate: ?
FearsomePirate: i'm working on 7
PinkMoosePearl: ah ok, im listening
FearsomePirate: 7. some people are uneducated because they're from a culture that despises education and hard work, and are generally more worried about getting shot than passing trig. i have no clue what to do about those people.
FearsomePirate: 8. the idea of the poor person who's been actively oppressed by Big Business is a myth, because there's no such coherent entity as Big Business
― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)
does fearsomepirate actually have a job or is he a student? anyone who's ever worked for an org larger than abt 15 ppl knows how idiotic (8) is: the salaries/working requirements/rules are set by the ppl at the top not by the ppl at the bottom and they are generally unfair, sometimes quite fantastically so
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)
1&2 are irrelevant: all political systems ever favour the lucky (!) and the clever - of course "industrious" by itself often doesn't lead to wealth, bcz (8) is nonsense (in the UK nurses are required to work very hard but are very poorly paid)
3. you probably agree with him
4. is silly, nothing is being said
5. laziness is an irrelevant issue also
6. sounds like pure invention also - where are these schools which don't teach math or reading
7. the fact that he "has no clue" what to do with 7. means his political system fails the first actually difficult test
8. is the nub of the problem - bcz he is talking nonsense here his entire worldview fails
― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 23:08 (twenty-one years ago)
six years pass...