Hi Wim:
> Replying to your questions of 27/5 9:49 -0700:
> My goal is not equal wealth for everyone in the world, but a level playing
> ground for everyone. The children of a banana laborer in Honduras working
> for a US transnational corporation should -with the same amount of personal
> effort- be able to get just as wealthy as my children.
How does one measure "equal effort?" What about differences in
intelligence, ambition, desire to learn, self-discipline, initiative,
education, literacy, honesty, imagination, inventiveness, leadership,
cooperation, concentration, thrift, craftsmanship, personality,
enthusiasm, productivity? Isn't wealth created by many factors other
than effort?
> If they are not able
> to make such an effort because of some handicap, there should be a safety
> net that allows them at least to live in dignity, just as the social
> security system in the Netherlands does for my children.
As you know only too well, social security systems depend on
employing the force of government to redistribute wealth. Imposing such
a system on a worldwide basis will require a world government with a
standing army of enforcers. Is this what you have in mind?
> Imagine an utterly
> lazy, but sane, person that doesn't put more effort in surviving than
> strictly necessary and a workaholic (but still sane). The gap between rich
> and poor should not be wider than the gap between their effort.
See questions above about your single focus on effort.
> Mind you: I
> made my remark about a more subtle central command being possible nowadays
> than in 1918 Russia or 1949 China against the background of Roger's
> statement that 'distributed control is needed as well as central command'.
> I mean for instance: - differential taxation of more/less socially
> desirable production-processes (desirability being judged democratically,
> of course) - subsidizing Associations and Foundations with socially
> desirable goals (as long as their activities don't distort competition on
> any market) - making the minimum/maximum labor conditions that labor unions
> and organizations of employers agree on in an industrial sector legally
> binding for all employers and employees in that sector (preventing free
> rider behavior) Such policies are supported by all parties that have been
> part of Dutch government (always supported by a coalition of several
> parties, because no party is ever big enough to have a majority because of
> Dutch voting systems), ranging from 'social democrats' on the left to
> 'liberals' and 'Christian democrats' on the right.
What I read between the lines is that you would like to see the socialist
government of the Netherlands used as a model for a world government.
Is that your view?
> I tend to use 'privilege' as meaning 'something you got without having made
> a personal effort for it' and 'underprivileged' for those that don't get
> what others get whatever their personal effort.
As for effort, see questions above asking whether other things matter
besides effort. I am guessing, but underneath your use of 'privilege' is an
assumption that much of what happens to individuals is a matter of
chance or luck. Would you say that is so? Do you think individual lives
are largely determined by accidents of birth, family, country and other
outside influences against which one is virtually helpless?
Please be assured I am not questioning your intentions as to desirable
ends. What I am trying to get at is underlying assumptions about how
wealth is produced and the proper balance between freedom and force.
You see, I agree with Pirsig's conclusion about New York: "It's the
freedom to be so awful that gives it the freedom to be so good." But I
suspect you have reservations. Since we all want the world to be"so
good," the ongoing discussion that you initiated as to how to get there
is most worthwhile.
Platt
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