I've known people like that too, but to have persistent status means on average you were adept enough to make good decisions and approximate outcomes in negotiations.djes wrote:Why not, it depends on what purpose you follow in life. I know good stories about beggars, some who were rich and became poor, some who were poor and became rich (good traders somehow), some who were rich to be poor, some who were poor to be rich, some who gets rich to be poor, some who gets poor to be rich. Surely, you could be happier to be rich, especially in good health, that money can't guarantee.
Not really.. It wasn't until minted currency and capitalism that things became organized enough for civilization to produce vaccines and life expectancy rose up.. Same with refrigeration.djes wrote:Maybe you aren't conscious about what is free. Let's start with something common : firefighters are working for free. Enlarge : police is free. In fact, all whole countries (not especially services) are free. At this point, you say : false, it costs money, we pay taxes ! It's not exactly true. It costs energy, in form of work and goods. Before money was invented, you get social help from the others to fight disease, to help construct your house, to eat. This is work. And you get goods from ... Nature. Everything that you get from nature is free. Now, add hundred of years of "progress", and it's right that a lot of theses things are not "free" anymore. Especially things that are really complicated, like computers, vaccines, exotic foods... Are they really important ? Sure, some of them. Maybe less than a mother's love, but they could be useful anyway.
Also,, none of that energy is given for free.. The person in the US who needs at least $1,500.00 a month to pay for living expenses isn't going out in the cold for anything else.. I'd imagine it's the same even in France where a lot of people think along your lines.
At least most of the reason I'm even in the US is capitalism.. Definitely not the scenery or nice people..
In most countries I've lived the average person making 500 USD or euro more than another person will noticeably differentiate themselves from that person.djes wrote:Well... I only know one or two, and they're not really friends. They certainly have a lot to learn from the people "making" less.
I'm not saying this is intelligent, and I even find it petty and stupid, but it's real..
A computer is automation. That one can be used as a processing server to generate revenue. You are right though I should of asked for a CNC machine which is slightly more profitable.djes wrote:There's a lot of terms handled like toys that aren't. Capitalism. Evil. Socialism. Communism. Republic. Thousand years of human thinking, debates, fights, progress, wars, achievements and climb-down. One side of the balance. In the other side, what ? A computer. That's what is wrong with capitalism. It overestimates some not really useful things, underestimate some others. To achieve this, it handles common vices, like envy. What is really important ?
I'll play *society* whenever even one out of a thousand of the billions does..