(urth) Gene Wolfe Fans Talk Politics (Again)
James Wynn
crushtv at gmail.com
Tue May 19 13:25:37 PDT 2009
>> You can say that "Well, we live in a society, and that's just the burden
>> that rich people will have to bear to live in it with us. Fine. The Wall
>> Street Journal has an article yesterday by Art Laffer on what the
>> response of rich people is to that ultimatum.
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260067214828295.html
>> They leave.
>> Just as the pilgrims left when Wat set up shop in the forest.
>
>Adam sez: And yet, I see very few millionaires moving to Mogadishu.
> Why do you suppose that is?
Because the people there do not respect the integrity of private property?
You will find millionaires hiding out in the Bahamas. And many millionaires
have left the "more equitable" welfare state of the U.K. for the "less fair"
U.S. and Ireland. The flight of load-bearing citizens from NYC and
California are test-tube examples of what happens when you increase benefits
for all on the backs of a voting minority.
There is another reason America is not (yet) Mogadishu. Václav Havel said
that it's easy to get a Communist society from a Capitalist one. It's as
easy as getting seafood from an exotic fish aquarium. You just boil the the
aquarium. It's harder to go the other way. Those calling for increased
social benefits from government are currently benefiting from a society that
has (relatively) eschewed those things in the past. They are essentially
living off the principle of an inheritance.
People talk about how much Europeans *love* their free health care and
education. But educated people there are quite anxious to come to the U.S.
anyway. Why? Limited opportunity. It's not uncommon for Europeans to take
their free Ph.Ds and go to work as waiters. It's not "How many millionaires
are leaving?" The tradesmen (the rich) didn't leave the village in "The
Devil in a Forest". The question is "How many new ones are coming? Is the
rate of new ones being created here increasing or decreasing?"
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