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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sam Citron who wrote (46492)	5/9/2001 2:59:46 PM
From: Ian@SI	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 70976

Sam, I'm not going to get drawn into another lengthy exchange of views but I suspect part of the disagreement may be over entitlement vs earned benefits. Personally, I believe someone is entitled to a privilege or benefit only to the extent that they've earned it. I see no rationale whatsoever that dictates that every member of the world, a country, a state/province, city/town, organization or even a family should be equally entitled to an equal share of anything or everything. Whether or not we're talking about income, shelter, food, healthcare, education or whatever. If someone wants it, then earn it. And everyone should have the chance to earn it. Even someone with a SAT score of 1000 or less can always become a multi millionaire if they excel at some sport such as baseball, football, hockey or golf. FWIW, Ian

To: Sam Citron who wrote (46492)	5/9/2001 9:30:46 PM
From: Cary Salsberg	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

RE: "Interesting. Why not?" The gene pool is affected by reproductive success. Human competition, ranging from economic to warfare, usually does not result in the victor reproducing and the vanquished, not. Therefore, even if inherited traits contributed to the victory, the gene pool is not likely to have an increase of those traits. RE: "True, but minimum wage jobs are by definition for the minimally qualified worker." WRONG! Wages are determined by supply and demand, not worker's qualifications. You may be qualified to be a software engineer, but if those jobs are sent overseas to a lower wage labor pool, you may be required to take a minimum wage retail clerks job. RE: "We will always need artists, restauranteurs, carpenters, carpet salesmen, etc. And I only hope and pray that a free and competitive market will always determine their relative wage differentials. In a " free and competitive market" a surplus of labor drives wages down to below subsistence levels until death eliminates the surplus. RE: "situations...individuals who are stuck in low paying jobs?" Free trade has exported and will continue to export what were good paying jobs. I am prepared to the use the graduated income tax system to provide medical care, housing and food subsidies, child care, aged care, and children's higher education for people "stuck in low paying jobs." I want to allow all hardworking people the opportunity to achieve a decent life for themselves and their families.