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To: Bipin Prasad who wrote (15588)	3/14/2001 3:24:58 PM
From: MeDroogies	Respond to of 19079

My great fear is that, should a severe recession ensue, that the great unwashed of the USA will call for greater government intervention to "prevent" another meltdown like the one we just had. It is the one classic story of history. Market volatility is always with us, but people seem to think the government can provide something for nothing. Hence they call for greater involvement and regulation. Of course, this requires money, which requires taxes. So on into the death spiral. A brief review of the fall of the Roman Empire makes it clear: taxes, collected largely by the middle class and received by large landholders to then be passed up to the government, were increased as Rome's tastes became more lavish and their desire for less pressure on their wealth. Coupled with the need to defend large borders, these taxes were raised continuously. Problem is, the way taxes worked, the collectors were responsible to deliver a set sum. If the people they collected from were unable to deliver, the money came from the collectors' pocket. As a result, the middle class (the collectors) had most of their money taken and their lands expropriated by the wealthy landholders. The poor, of course, were already in a bad way and simply slipped into the landholder's demesne...setting up the beginnings of the feudal system. Things can happen that way, again. If people don't believe it, just take a look at China, which, for all intents and purposes, is still a feudal country. Government control may eliminate some of the uncertainties we face in the market....but it is uncertainty that brings opportunity and wealth. As a result, we will all be worse off. I feel bad for the people in that article. My dad is a doctor and visited China 18 years ago. He was impressed with the barefoot doctors. They were a much needed and valuable resource. Even with them, things were bad. This writer clearly misses the point. He seems to think that things got worse because market mechanisms were put in place. The market isn't the problem. It is the starting point from which the market has been activated. When a situation is bad...REALLY BAD...usually the first few steps are the hardest and most painful to take. The need for the barefoot doctors was real and tangible. The mistake was not finding a way to incorporate them into the market structure that was being introduced.

To: Bipin Prasad who wrote (15588)	3/14/2001 6:05:27 PM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 19079

We do, already, on both sides of the extended family, and had been since the 1910, by building schools, raising money for the war efforts, building more schools, providing scholarships, introducing business opportunities, and intend to continue doing so, as long as we keep make more fortunes than losing them and keep our wealth from Green$pan clutch. Difficult job, as you are finding out, especially since the last time we communicated. Chugs, Jay