[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Byron100', 'T')hat may very well be the case, Cube...

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '
')Let me guess you believe in what I call the "multiplier theory": if we spend $1 tax dollar on this government program then it will yield $3 in economic benefits for society.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '
')Let me guess you believe in what I call the "multiplier theory": if we spend $1 tax dollar on this government program then it will yield $3 in economic benefits for society.

[MrBill]

RE: A Captialist versus a Socialist nightmare

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n one scene, a wealthy homemaker, plump and accessorized by Louis Vuitton, zips through the city in the back of her black SUV, pattering on her phone. Suddenly, her chauffeur slams on the brakes, jostling the woman and interrupting her conversation.

"That beggar child came in front of my car," she explains indignantly to her friend in English after resuming her call. "That idiotic driver just put the brake."

In another scene, a security guard discovers that his son is ill and, without a $150 treatment, will die. Yadav goes around in his building asking for loans from tenants who often drop $40 on pizza.

The tenants, glued to televisions, treat him like a puppy to be shooed away.

That night, as he sits with friends filling himself with drink, he contemplates what it would mean to bury a son. "Why is it," he wails, "that people can only feel their own pain, not others'?"

The director's answer is that India has something deeper than a poverty problem.

It has, in his view, a "dehumanization" problem. In an interview, he described India's employers and servants as living as "two different species."

The movie's first half chronicles India's small humiliations with a chilling realism. The second half prophesies an outbreak of violent revolts in a country whose elite has long comforted itself with the thought that the poor will stoically accept their lots.

Menon's belief is that such stoicism is drying up in an age when the rich are more visibly rich and the left-behind are ever more aware of their deprivation.

[Byron100]

Thanks for that link the servants' life India, MrBill. Quite the eye-opener for sure.

It reminds me of a dream I had once a while back, in which I was watching video feed of a major riot in India. Somehow, 1000's of people had decided to swarm a big box store at the same time, totally overwhelming the staff as they stormed into the store. It was really a terrifying scene to watch, too...all those people swarming like ants. This makes me wonder when the barrier of stoic acceptance in India finally break down, if that's the kind of thing we might be seeing over there in future years.

I do have to say, that it never ceases to amaze me, how there can be so very many poor and so few rich by comparison, and how society is kept in balance that way. How much of a shift in society does it really take to upset existing relationships between the classes, both here in the States and in places such as India?

Cube posits that many of the rich will "blend" themselves into the middle class. Let's just make it easy and say there will be some well-off folks that will become part of the new, but much smaller middle class in the future. But if most of the "middle class" of today is destroyed, practically anyone who owns a house and able to drive an auto, as well as have plenty to eat is going to look pretty darned wealthy, IMO. Another thing to consider is how people tend to accept their lot in life, as long as they have reasonable security and are able to have the basics of shelter, transportation, food and medical care. You take that away from people who are used to having them, then woe to those that still do.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Byron100', 'C')ube posits that many of the rich will "blend" themselves into the middle class. Let's just make it easy and say there will be some well-off folks that will become part of the new, but much smaller middle class in the future. But if most of the "middle class" of today is destroyed, practically anyone who owns a house and able to drive an auto, as well as have plenty to eat is going to look pretty darned wealthy, IMO. Another thing to consider is how people tend to accept their lot in life, as long as they have reasonable security and are able to have the basics of shelter, transportation, food and medical care. You take that away from people who are used to having them, then woe to those that still do.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem.

[ROCKMAN]

cube...let me be the first to welcome you to Texas.

Mr. Bill,
Your link brought rushing back a bad memory I would just as soon rather not have. Years ago while working in Nigeria a driver was hauling me to the company office. I just kept my head down reading in the back seat. Not much you care to see outside the window. There was a sudden bump and when I looked back there was a body lying in the road. We just kept driving. I got the driver's eye and he just shrugged his shoulders and said "These things happen". He may have been alive when we hit him or not. Dumping dead bodies in the roadway was not an uncommon practice then for several reasons. Between that incident and having an expat roommate who went slightly insane, this was my first and last hitch in Nigeria. I’m pretty sure I told you about my experiences in Equatorial Guinea last year so we can skip that little nightmare.

It is true: despite all our problems and inequities in the US most folks don’t understand how different things are here between classes compared to other charming spots on the globe.

[MrBill]

I am trained in Outdoor Emergency Care (OEC) in the National Ski Patrol, so usually I stop to help if ever there is an accident.

However, last year we drove past some fresh road carnage minutes after it happened in Cairo. Some poor schmuck on a moped got creamed. But as my friend and his driver said best not stop because then somehow the police will find a reason why you were involved as a foreigner and make you responsible. At least until you pay the right person not to make it your fault.

It is really tough to live and work in some of these countries. The values are completely different. I think this is something the armchair liberals tend to forget is that not everyone shares our universal values.

It may sound racist (it probably is), but another poster wrote that wherever Europeans went they tended to recreate Europe, but wherever Africans go they tend to recreate Africa. Not very politically correct, but more than a hint of truth in that statement.

[MrBill]

I wrote earlier in environmental proposals:
Water policy - green zones along all major watersheds. No agriculture or development in the green zones. Mandatory water recycling. Exception: controlled access to water for beaches, ports, public access, etc.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')riving the trend are nitrogen and phosphorous from chemical agricultural fertilizers that reach coastal waters after flowing off farm fields and into streams and rivers, according to the study published in the journal Science.

(continued)

The researchers said dead zones must be considered an important source of stress on marine ecosystems, ranking alongside over-fishing, habitat loss from human development and harmful algal blooms as global environmental problems.

Dead zones are formed when excess nutrients, mostly nitrogen and phosphorus, enter coastal waters and help fertilize blooms of algae. When these tiny plants die and sink to the sea bottom, they provide a food source for bacteria, which consume dissolved oxygen from surrounding waters.

As a result, there are large areas of sea floor with insufficient oxygen to support most marine life.

"Fish are the best at avoiding dead zones. When the oxygen starts to decline, they're smart -- they leave, they don't hang around. Crabs and shrimp are pretty good at getting away, too, as are lobsters," Diaz said.

But slower-moving creatures on the sea floor often die, including worms, clams and small crustaceans. "These are the animals that are the fundamental food base for the commercial crabs, shrimp and fish that feed on the bottom," Diaz said.