Greed is Good!

[Mich the Tester]

You need to think through the consequences of this.

First they came for the recruitment agents...


Them they came for the onshore testers...

I'm not just a tester anymore. I've spent all week doing Scada work. I suppose that still leaves me pretty low down the food chain though, so I'll have third thoughts while I have a tulip. I'll call them 'turd thoughts'.

[DodgyAgent]

and how do you think " worth should be judged/measured/defined ?"

So many people like to apply a standard to concepts when it is ridiculous and irrelevant to do so. It is probably because intellectually they cannot cope with anything that does not fit into a box. As far as worth or value is concerned:


personally I do not care it is an entirely subjective and personal concept. My children have an intrinsic worth to me but I would not expect them to have an intrinsic worth to anyone else. If they do then the worth that I place on them will be higher than anyone elses.

[doodab]

The problems come when the poor see what others are getting. When the poor are made to believe that they are lucky to have whatever they have been given then it is easier to control them. Many of Historys (and contemporary) dicators have sought to control people by for example killing the intelligentsia (Pol Pot) or not educating segments of the population (women under Taliban rule).

This is not possible in a democratic society so those who want to control others (usually the weak and poor) do so by demonising in this case the rich (as Hitler did with the Jews). This I am afraid is how the left have kept control - by demonising the rich and killing the aspirations of the poor.

This whole debate should ignore negative concepts as manifested by weasel words such as "equality" and seek to enable everyone to achieve whatever it is they wish to do. Unfortunately this would mean human beings becoming confident and self reliant and thus not interested in the whining negativity of the left.

Your obsession with battling "lefties" blinds you to reality. Regardless of what you enable people to achieve the fact (and it is an objective, measurable fact, not an opinion or idealogical position) remains that greater economic inequality correlates to higher crime, bigger prison populations, worse health, worse mental health, shorter periods of fast economic growth, higher debt and more social unrest.

[LisaContractorUmbrella]

I'm not "pretending to be above the argument". You're just to thick to realise that I'm saying I'm worth more than you, by your definition since:
You don't give as much to society as you're a middleman.
Whereas the work I do helps save lives and improves the balance of payments as I have clients abroad.

But presumably you don't do that work for purely altruistic reasons? If you were to determine worth on how much of their time and energies people were freely devoting to those less fortunate than themselves you may not be necessarily as worthwhile as you believe.

[sasguru]

. In my view they should try and be straightforward in their argument or as has happened here they will be made to look foolish.

Do you live in some parallel dream universe where you are clever and win arguments?

[Mich the Tester]

...as Hitler did with the Jews...

And the 'lefties'.

[DodgyAgent]

Your obsession with battling "lefties" blinds you to reality. Regardless of what you enable people to achieve the fact (and it is an objective, measurable fact, not an opinion or idealogical position) remains that greater economic inequality correlates to higher crime, bigger prison populations, worse health, worse mental health, shorter periods of fast economic growth, higher debt and more social unrest.

So if you made all the rich people in Brazil the UK, the USA poor crime would drop?

[sasguru]

But presumably you don't do that work for purely altruistic reasons? If you were to determine worth on how much of their time and energies people were freely devoting to those less fortunate than themselves you may not be necessarily as worthwhile as you believe.

Quite. You see what a kettle of fish "worth" is. If I save 1000 lives and get paid handsomely for it am I worth more or less than a volunteer with good intentions who saves 5?

[Old Greg]

Oh for heaven's sake - it depends on your definition of worth - if you believe that everyone has an intrinsic worth purely because they are a member of the human race then no, if you believe that worth is dependent on the contribution or otherwise made to society then yes

How would you measure someone's contribution or otherwise made to society? BTW I'm not trying to make a narky point about what was obviously a typo so feel free to rephrase.

[sasguru]

So if you made all the rich people in Brazil the UK, the USA poor crime would drop?

God you really are thick as two short planks.