[edible_eye]

Originally Posted by Disfunction

I believe that faceless others should have an equal opportunity to attain the same luxuries. I do not believe that luxuries should simply be thrust upon them. We should have to work as hard as they do, or they should have to work as little as we do (relatively), or there should be a balance brought between. I'm not suggesting that Jose Gonzales from Mexico city should be given all of my money; I'm suggesting that Jose should have an equal opportunity to attain such wealth. Whether he squanders his opportunity would be another matter entirely. In other words, this is far from pity; as far as I can read it, I'd call this equality.

in a perfect world, with perfect people and perfect allocation of resources - you provide a beautiful picture. alas, without a worldwide purging of humanity as it is and a subsequent rebirth of man slanted more toward an altruistic, selfless state - i can't ever see it happening.

reach for the stars... settle for standing on the curb to look down upon the street.

Originally Posted by disfunction

That's not entirely true. I don't want a monoculture. I want to do away with political seperations more than anything else.

doing away with political seperations, with where we are as a people, would be to remove all discussion such as this. it would be to remove the only system of checks and balances we have as a people. the world is absolutely an unbalanced arena. different mindsets and the debates resulting from such are the best tools we have as a people to institute some semblance of balance, or at the very least, to institute ideals on a trial basis until proven either worthy or inappropriate.

we (you and i) have different political leanings, different views of how the world should work. there's no secret there. imagine what it would be like if you were not allowed to speak your mind, though because my view was "the way it is". it would make you nuts. same for me if my voice was silenced.

the greatest curse and the greatest blessing we, as humans, have been granted is the ability to reason our way through information we are presented with. removing that opportunity from our lexicon of abilities would be to stagnate our growth, despite how tumultuous discussions such as this sometimes get.

Originally Posted by disfunction

That's pretty much the way it went down. North America, when it was discovered, revealed a mass of untapped resources. Each of us living here has one a genetic lottery that we've been taught that, through simply being shot out from your mother's baby maker in this here continent, we've asserted our right to maintain this distribution of wealth. I'm not making a suggestion that we should simply toss money to other countries.

really? so, the forethought to tap those resources and create a world of invention had nothing to do with it? you're saying that by virtue of said "resources" being a part of the land, people spontaneously became "rich"? and conversely, by virtue of genetics popping out in other lands, they were destined to be unable to tap their own resources to make a better way of life?

i remember being taught in school, way back when (5th or 6th grade) that i was born into the greatest country on earth and it was my responsibility, as a citizen, to work hard and learn as much as i could in order to keep this country going strong. they're not allowed to teach messages like that anymore. something about it being offensive to other cultures, or some such shit. maybe other cultures need to get some ego pumping happening instead of whining and complaining about what they don't like about america.

waaah-waaaah-fucking-waaaah.

Originally Posted by disfunction

Something that should change should be the debt of such nations as Brazil, which happens to be trapped in a cycle of debt which is slowly killing off the remaining portion of the Amazon due to a need to sell of the best land to the cattle industry, financed by the United States. The soil in the amazon doesn't hold many nutrients close to the surface; when a few growing seasons go through, the soil is devoid of anything to help plants grow, and so they have to cut down more trees.

Who gets the blame? The Brazilian government. The trouble is, they have no choice.

they have no choice because all they have is the opportunity to be subservient? or they have no choice because they have no one, throughout their entire country, who is able to figure out alternative ways for their people to be competitive in order to generate a better way of life? or they have no choice because people in the united states are a bunch of shitheads?