From: Wim Nusselder (wim.nusselder@antenna.nl)
Date: Fri Jun 10 2005 - 22:38:19 BST
Dear Platt,
You
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 2:21 PM
> > How yould you strive to
> > decrease (not necessarily eliminate) the differences in chances between
> > blacks and whites in the USA?
>
> I have no idea. Some blacks believe getting an education is anti-black.
What would you think about changing the penal system that seems to
specifically target blacks (and bounce a lot of them between prison and
hopeless getto's)? Maybe a 'Marshall plan' for those getto's might be an
idea? Maybe create work for them and/or borrow them money to set up
small-scale businesses for themselves? Micro-credit seems to be quite a
success story in poor countries, why not try it in the poor parts of a rich
country?
> > > So today's educational system doesn't give everyone an equal chance.
> > > Right? If so, the solution is .... ??
>
> > Education combined with the rest of society [doesn't give everyone an
equal
> > chance], yes. If you agree, can we
> > search for solutions together? I certainly don't have THE answer.
>
> Me neither. I don't even know where to begin.
Would it be an idea to begin with an idea which I dropped before on this
list:
According to a Dutch saying 'the devil always shits on the same heap'. In
other words: wealth somehow accumulates with those who already have enough
and those who don't have enough, need much more effort to get any (e.g. two
or more jobs to feed a family).
Why, according to you, is it easier for a wealthy person (or group) to
accumulate wealth?
Maybe that would be a starting point to find ways to make chances more
equal?
> Now, about another American view of the recent EU vote, this by David
> Brooks of the NY Times. Some excerpts:
>
> "Forgive me for making a blunt and obvious point, but events in Western
> Europe are slowly discrediting large swaths of American liberalism. Most
> of the policies advocated by American liberals have already been enacted
> in Europe: generous welfare measures, ample labor protections, highly
> progressive tax rates, single-payer health care systems, zoning
> restrictions to limit big retailers, and cradle-to-grave middle-class
> subsidies supporting everything from child care to pension security. And
> yet far from thriving, continental Europe has endured decades of relative
> decline."
>
> "Right now, Europeans seem to look to the future with more fear than hope.
> As Anatole Kaletsky noted in The Times of London, in continental Europe
> 'unemployment has been stuck between 8 and 11 percent since 1991 and
> growth has reached 3 percent only once in 14 years.' "
>
> "The Western European standard of living is about a third lower than the
> American standard of living, and it's sliding. European output per capita
> is less than that of 46 of the 50 American states and about on par with
> Arkansas. There is little progress of growth returning any time soon."
>
> Lots more in the article about Europe's aging population, the threat of
> Turkey, etc., too much to reproduce here. But, here's the summary that
> supports Pirsig's criticism of socialism in Lila as lacking in Dynamic
> Quality:
>
> "The liberal project of the postwar era has bred a stultifying
> conservatism, a fear of dynamic flexibility, a greater concern for
> guarding what exists than creating what doesn't."
I don't agree that the Western European standard of living is lower than the
American standard of living. Gross National Product is not a good measure of
the standard of living. I suggested before (21 Jun 2004 8:30 +0200) to have
a look at the Human Development Reports.
In the 2004 Human Development Index the USA ranks 8th below 5 Western
European countries, not the biggest ones, though.
I also quoted a press release by the UNDP on the occasion of the release of
the 2003 Human Development Report (see
www.undp.org/hdr2003/pdf/presskit/HDR03_PR4E.pdf ):
> The Human Poverty Index (HPI) for rich countries which ranks
> them according to their national levels of poverty, illiteracy,
> unemployment and life-expectancy. Sweden comes in at the top
> while the United States finishes last. The Report notes that Sweden,
> despite a lower per capita income than the United States, has, on
> average, more adults who are functionally literate and fewer living in
> poverty. This Index shows that even in middle or high income
> countries, inequity persists.
...
[internal quote from lead author Sakiko Fukuda-Parr:]
> "For the highly developed countries, the GEM [Gender Empowerment
> Measure] and the HPI are much more meaningful measures of
> human development than the main Human Development Index. These
> indices show that two countries can have similar human development
> ranking, but still differ sharply on the proportion of their citizens who
> remain excluded and lack opportunities."
You did agree that equality of chances is one of the main criteria for the
quality of life, didn't you? (Didn't something like that start your
Declaration of Independence?)
Continental Western European policies may well be more successful in
securing the right of all governed to pursue happiness than American ones.
In relatively rich countries GNP per capita (which IS higher for the USA
than for almost all of continental Western Europe) certainly doesn't measure
happiness and even less the equality of the right to pursue it.
Quite a few Europeans may have good reasons for guarding what exists rather
than creating what doesn't. What exists for them is a high standard of
living. What others want them create is more inequality: a higher standard
of living only for the elite, harder work for an only slowly rising standard
of living of the middle classes and a lower standard of living for a growing
underclass. The only way to make a majority in most European countries
accept further globalisation and European integration (which would create
more wealth per capita, i.e. ON AVERAGE), is to create better (not
necessarily more expensive) social security systems. The perceived (but for
sizable groups very real) risk of degeneration of biological and social
patterns of value for them (falling below the average wealth level and
getting stuck there because of devilish desecration habits) should be lower
for people to choose DQ over sq.
With friendly greetings,
Wim
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