Re: [SL4] Al Gore's unintended messages.
From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Thu Aug 17 2000 - 10:01:49 MDT
Mark Plus wrote:
>
> Al Gore during his acceptance speech tonight sent me a couple of unintended
> messages as he contributed his share to the Democrats' parade of victimized
> Americans.
>
> Around 19:10 PST he pointed out an elderly woman in the audience whose only
> income came from Social Security, and who had to spend half of this income
> on medications while the evil pharmaceutical companies are allegedly making
> "record profits."
>
> Two things:
>
> One, this woman didn't plan her life very well. (In fact, she reminds me of
> my grandparents, who I could tell even as a child were improvident and thus
> POOR in their old age.) Nothing kept her from saving and investing in
> equities or in real estate or in SOMETHING during her working life so that
> she would have an independent wealth base and a stream of investment income
> in addition to Social Security.
How in the hell do you know this? Do you know the details of this
woman's life? Do you know for a fact that she had not only enough for
herself and any children she may of raised but a bit of bonus that could
be invested and had the knowledge to invest it? I very seriously doubt
it. Or are you one of those people who belief that there is no such
thing as an honest, intelligent and careful person that reaches some set
of adversity greater than their ability to plan and meet them? Are you
sure that we are not entering a time where the pace of technological
change is greater than the speed at which many people can retool their
skills? Or for that matter a time that is truly postindustrial in that
much of the population is not needed in fulltime paid position in order
to meet the needs and wants of all of us? If we are in or about to
enter such times then we darn well better learn to take care of people
without assuming they are stupid and/or lazy if they end up without
their own private means of suppport. The person who you give respect
and a healthy life to may be someone you love, it may even be yourself
not to far down the line. Think about it.
Or are the riches of the approaching singularity only for the fleetest
of foot and the meanest SOBs in the pack?
- samantha
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: Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:35 MDT