Quote: All inequalities in

All?

So it is out there for the taking, right?

Not correct. That's why they have the Darwin Awards.

Easy to say, most likely impossible to correct. If you have two people in a room and one has something the other fancies you have a potential for an economy.

True democracy as a solution to all the world's woes is a mythological entity that simply cannot exist. It is impossible to keep everybody happy.

Democracy is just one of the tools that may help to resolve inequalities but it is not a panacea.

All inequalities

"All inequalities in history have been caused by faiths and beliefs in that certain sectors have been blessed by the gods to rule."
I couldn't agree more.

At this time in our history, science is putting theory into practical applications at an unprecidented rate. Thats technology.

Logic and mathematical rigor have disproven most of the myths and stories put forth by human religions. Yet even educated people still hold on to blatant lies. Faith can either hold you back or propel you forward.

There are people who can do terrible things to others, they have their own moral code or rules and they succeed financially.
They are allowed to 'take' as much as they like without any penality. Thats our current economic system.
The rest of us, are just cattle we follow the herd. We make decisions on what our hearts tell us, on faith. We like serving others, it could be a result of brainwashing or just part of our nature.

Great show, the Nature of Things all about nano particles last night.
If Heron and Pythagoreus could only see us now....
They would go back to sleep for a few more millenium

Canad'a rich stomp the planet

Particularly true of the tourist industry. don't worry though; there will be - and already has been - a backlash. Rich tourists who lord it over the locals are in a for-boot-to-the-head. People are going to disappear in increasing numbers. This I know a priori, as surely as I can predict increasing taxes and rice pudding.

BC is the snottiest province in Canada, with the posible exception of Quebec. Vancouver Island is definitely the snottiest of all.

stomp the planet

'BC is the snottiest province in Canada'
yeh, but I think Vancouver has the worst attitude, worse than island communities.

Do you mean that tourists are going to stop coming here?, I might agree with that.
Our local lodges and higher end establishments are politely 'over priced', in my opinion. I dont think tourists get the bang for the buck that they are used to.
The lodges up here say things are rosy, but I have no idea what the truth is.

BC isnt 'the best place on Earth' and it certainly isnt a cheap holiday destination.

I don't know how we could

I don't know how we could measure the quality of the "best place on Earth", but my wife lived in 5 countries with 4 citizenships and I 4 with 3, 56 years here in BC, and we wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

The only way we could become rich is by winning the lottery, but even if we did, we would stay right here in Big Lake, away from the human zoos of other continents and cities.

Bless the day when we came here.

Ed Deak.

the Island the snottiest?

Ah, get a grip! What, someone overlooked the opportunity to kiss your ass when you visited the Island? Oh, how crass of us.

The Island is populated by two types of people. The recently arrived who THINK they are Islanders, and those born here, who call themselves "Salmonbellies".

Salmonbellies are insular, no denying that, but we're not "snotty". We don't think we're better than the rest of you, we're just luckier. We were born here. That makes us very lucky.

We know we're lucky because our Grandparents made damned good and sure we knew why they left whichever "old country" they walked and in some cases ran away from forever.

Salmonbellies, by and large, get along really well with First Nations. We didn't use to, I admit, but we've had the unwilling opportunity to experience what happens when strange people from odd places arrive and try to change everything. So we protect what we have. That isn't snottiness.

Inequality is, I'm afraid,

Inequality is, I'm afraid, part of the natural state of things.

Inequality is a reflection of the fact that people are different: different in their abilities, their assets, their education, their analytical skills, their savvy, perspicacity and their tolerance for risk and hard work.

If we didn't do out best to spot opportunity and make finer distinctions than the next man about those opportunities, we'd never get ahead in this world.

Inequality is the outcome of unlimited demand in a world of scarcity, of limited resources and sometimes unequal access to those resources. If one supports the right to private property, one can do nothing about unequal access without stealing from the productive, the frugal and the hardworking to reistribute to others. And this is what is occurring...but it is killing the drive, the initiative, the ambition that is needed to expand the pie.

If inequality were to be forcibly reduced, and everyone had a "right" to a job, food, medical care or whatever, why try harder anymore?

HEADLINES:

Trickle-down Economics Defies Gravity

Economists prove Newton wrong...wealth seen flowing uphill.

snert

Or a heist - which somehow fits with this article.

Ed Deak

Quit bragging about it, Ed. The place already filling up too fast as it is.

Snert....BC has the area of

Snert....BC has the area of Germany, France and Switzerland put together, with what , 4 million people, instead of close to 200 million ?

In any case I'm not bragging , just counting our blessings to have been able to find a place where we could build the greatest degree of self sufficiency, independence and personal freedom

Regardless what and how the idiots in Victoria and Ottawa screwing up.

Ed Deak.

re: best place on Earth

"don't know how we could measure the quality of the "best place on Earth", but my wife lived in 5 countries with 4 citizenships and I 4 with 3, 56 years here in BC, and we wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

I'm a native, born in couvertown. My parents certainly beleived it was the 'best place on earth'. Anne C makes good points stole my thunder.

How is tourism on the Island, is it down or up? What do people think about coming here for a holday? How does the rest of the world percieve us?

back to Ed
'In any case I'm not bragging , just counting our blessings to have been able to find a place where we could build the greatest degree of self sufficiency, independence and personal freedom'

yeh we are wonderful weve been able to occupy a large mass (the largest) of land in a peaceful manner, yee hah
yeh we are lucky. Canadians have relestate. Iranians could have taken over the moon and made the same claims to their good fortune.

There is nothing to compare our experience with geographically that is. Canadians are still humans no better or worse.
Im sure Ed knows, deep down canadians dont have a monopoly on common sense and logic.

free....I would never suggest

free....I would never suggest that Canadians have any monopoly on common sense and logic, witness the governments they elect and the way they permit them to sell the country from under their feet, while calling it "growth".

Today, as at any other time, a few people of any nation, or race, have ever possessed any common sense and logic, the vast majority have always followed crooks and nuts to their doom.

What I was saying is that here, with the sparse population it was, and still is, possible to build a reasonable degree of personal independence and self sufficiency.

At the same time, and also the reason I'm spending time on this list, is that I'm hoping for an awakening and miracle, when people start standing up against the thieves and the royal screw they're subjected to.

The Occupy movement may just be the early beginning of it ???????

Ed Deak.

Ed

Too bad though, that people are beginning to wonder just what the point of the "occupiers" is. That they don't "get it" works to the advantage of the 1%.

It will be a long slog............

Rick.....Many avalanches

Rick.....Many avalanches start with single skiers, or snowmobiler.

The timetable is impossible to predict, but even those of us who have been working for many years to bring the Soviets down were surprised when they suddenly collapsed with a whimper.

Now that is has started, the questioning by the 99% can only grow. For how long? Who knows ?

The present system can collapse at any time, because it has no foundations and then we can only hope for the least violence and a logical rebuilding for the benefit of the 99%.

Ed Deak.

Ed

Once we get Harper & Co. out of the way perhaps. But he seems determined to go against the grain and all the information that states what he is doing is just plain WRONG.

Ed Deak

{quote]Many avalanches start with single skiers, or snowmobiler.

Bad analogy, Ed. Most avalanches can be avoided with little effort and a lot more are start on there own and go unnoticed.

One of the things that never seems to get addressed in reports on this movement is that the split is not 1%-99% for people that even care. It's more like the reverse 99% don't really seem terribly upset and the 1% just can't seem to figure out what it is they want.

Which equality

The focus seems to be on differences in income or economic have-have nots. The basis of equality is whether society treats everyone equally, sometimes call equally before the law. Since life isn't equal or fair, why should someone who is smarter, works harder or is lucky have the same opportunities and outcomes as others? Steve Jobs would be an example. However, when accused of something, I would hope that everyone is equally thought of as innocent unless and until proven guilty.

As for the occupiers, most in Vancouver are complaining that they cannot afford to live in Vancouver (although they obviously are) but don't think they should have to move where rents are cheaper and jobs are plentiful. How are they not being treated equally since others do move.

People can not afford to live

People can not afford to live in Vancouver, because our capitalists are taking their factories etc. to their Chinese commie brothers, making them rich, so they can come back and buy up Vancouver and later the whole of Canada for their kids, inflating prices with the monies we pay them .

Now let's hear the usual capitalist wisdom that Canadian workers priced themselves out of jobs.

Funny thing, they haven't 40 years ago, when most of my employees could afford their own homes and so could millions, all over.

Oh, I forgot, that was before "wealth creating globalization" when executives were paid 10 or 20 times the salaries of their lowest paid, but now they insist on 275 times more, because "they're worth it "

And yet the real funny part is that our businesses are moving to China "to be more efficient", while we have the B 52s over our heads all the time, practicing to bomb those "efficient", slave labour countries.

Ed Deak.

snert

What you mean is, YOU can't figure out what they want. Most of the rest of us here figured that out eons ago.

But, if you want an example, consider this:
http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/CEOsOverpaid.htm
"...the average CEO salary reached an unbelievable 531 times that of the average hourly worker"

That typifies the change they want. The fact that they don's much care HOW it's done is beside the point.