www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I was reading a blog the other day which discussed the global redistribution of wealth. The author of the column was of the opinion that the US had far too much wealth in proportion to many other countries around the world. I am sure he would probably group Canada with the US. The author of the blog suggested that there needed to be a solution which would effectively level the playing field to eliminate the wealth disparity in the world. In a nutshell the wealthy United States should give some of its wealth to the poorer countries. The author seemed to imply that the US should be embarrassed - guilty that they had so much while others had so little.

I don't want to make this political so I wont get into a discussion as to the reason why I think the US and Canada are better off than many other countries. The point of my post is to investigate and discuss how this emerging trend will affect our lifestyle. It is no surprise that the countries that we like to visit are the ones that are economically poorer than North America. If the pro global redistribution of wealth lobby was successful in artificially making the world economically equal what would happen to our lifestyle?

I often wondered if Puerto Rico and Trinidad would be good countries to be visit. These countries are in very close proximity to Cuba, Dominican Republic, and I reasoned that they should offer the same good experience. I did some research and quickly discovered that these locations are economically similar to America and not worth visiting. The obvious reason is that their wealth is at a level higher than their neighbours of Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

Many will say that a economically equal world will never exist. Right now there are political parties hard at work making global redistribution of wealth a reality and should not be easily dismissed. Some would say that the global warming - climate change issue is really about transferring wealth from wealthy nations to poorer ones. Of course some individuals will become very wealthy trading carbon credits between the rich and poor countries.

I have no issue with any poor country that can, on their own, change their situation around and become economically prosperous. I certainly do not want any country being financially enriched on the backs of hard working Americans and Canadians, especially if that unjust enrichment results in the end of our hobby.

Devo

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The most dangerous adversaries are the ones that come with a smile instead of a sword

This topic is difficult to not go political but I think the easy answer for the rest of the world is to just receive $ for doing nothing. If the world do-gooders want to help out the world, they can give their $ away. Otherwise, stay out of everybody elses pocket. There is nothing wrong with charity but just taking is out right wrong. I think P4P would be eliminated in a global system.

Dean

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my first wingman sent me this, how true

" most of the girls down here, lie as a self defense mechanism and to not have to face the truth, thinking most men couldn't accept them knowing the whole truth. Simpler, they may just want men to think they are as perfect as they want to appear to them, trying to hide what they consider to be the ugly truth about themselves. And I may be reading more into it than is there, but I do believe they consider the basis of the lies to be justified."

Good!

Are you for real?

mh

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mh

Little to no effect on the hobby.

IMO, this situation is analogous to revenue sharing in Major League Baseball. The "rich" teams have to share part of their revenue with "poor" owners. The problem is that most of the poor owners don't use that money to improve their clubs or players. They just pocket that money as income. In a similar way, the poor countries will just "pocket" the money, so it will never reach the poorest people in the population, so they will continue to hustle to make ends meet.

Here's the problem in a nutshell--The countries that have abundant natural resources AND the entrepreneurial spirit to turn commodities into value-added product, prosper long-term. Those that have no/few natural resources BUT great entrepreneurial spirit, prosper.Those that only have the resources, don't. Those resources eventually get used up/ pumped out and then what do they have? Entrepreneurial spirit/thirst for education which can be turned into product/service lives on forever. It helps or maybe is necessary that there be a quasi-capitalist/open market system (diversity and meritocracy are key elements). Saudi Arabia is going to pump itself dry to feed the world's addiction to hydrocarbons, and then the UAE will own them. Nigeria will pump itself dry and then the world will forget about them. Venezuela will pump itself dry and then chaos/narcotraficantes will overwhelm them. Taiwan, South Korea and Israel will stand tall forever.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Israel will only stand tall until daddy warbucks pulls the plug on aid and military infrastructure support...

The great equalization of economies has been going on for some time now... It will continue for those countries that have something to contribute to the global economy as JazzBro indicated... Those that don't contribute will continue to suck hind tit...

The US is no longer the Valhalla that everyone sees on TV... One only has to travel the world to see the vast differences in infrastructure and quality of life in countries that only 20 years ago were backwater spots on the map...

The US is done and might as well stick a fork in it and call it done... Well past the tipping point on infrastructure, education, quality of life, taxation, entrepreneurial spirit, blah blah blah...

The 19th century was the age of the British empire...

The 20th century saw the rise of the American century...

The 21st century will be the Asian's turn...

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"Mongo only pawn in game of life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3K6UmgJIOw

Not quite; you don't account for the system of government that fosters growth of business as it is the engines that drive the economy. How does government drive business? Mostly by staying the hell out of the way, by not overtaxing it and overly restricting it through burdensome and mostly useless regulation. Right now, we are seeing what has happened to the unemployment rate since Congress decided to adjourn w/o extending the Bush Era tax cuts, it actually increased the unemployment rate. In the famous words of Ronald Reagan the last thing that anyone wants to hear is "I am from Washington and I am here to help".

How will spreading the wealth effect Mongering? It won't any transfer of wealth never reaches the people it might help, but is normally siphoned off into numerous corrupt pockets. My 2 cents anyways.

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“Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” And we are the guys that keep them in Eggs & Grits

The one commodity for which there is and can be no substitute is food--growing and processing. All the obsessing is about the non-perishable commodities and hydrocarbons but we and a few other countries have provided or can provide the whole broad spectrum of necessary foods to the world seemingly forever. We have grown increasingly efficient at it too. This will be our saving grace well into the future. I'm just talking about being able to supply the world's per-capita needs, not about the equalities or inequalities of distribution.
BTW Brother TimBones not to start a pissing contest but the world's current econiomic malaise shows the necessity of well-thought-out and enforced government regulation. And lest anyone think that we should just get rid of old laws and regulations that don't fit modern times or have any purpose other than to impede progress (whatever that is)--from 1899 to 1968, the only way any water pollution in navigable waters was controllable was an obscure law called The Rivers and Harbors Act and even this was used sparingly til the early '60's. Our financial implosion is directly attributable in large part to the overturning of the Glass-Steagal Act which effectively separated the 2 banking functions--investment and commercial/deposit-taking. After that we had the financial supermarkets and--Katie, bar the door!

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Good thread, but, I couldn't discuss without getting political.

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Providing humanitarian assistance to self employed chicas, one cash grant at a time.

You guys have done well not going into politics here. This progressive redistribution line of thinking will be extinguished in 23 days and you will not hear this idea discussed any further.

Redistribution of Wealth:

A noble but potentially destructive concept. Pouring money into an impoverished economy without first increasing the goods and services that that money would be spent on would only push those who are already living on the edge over the edge. If you multiply the annual income of someone living in an impoverished country all you're going to do is raise the price of the limited goods and services that are available to him. Potentially pushing those goods and services beyond the means of his new income.
I
Historical example: Spain sales home with most of the wealth of the New World. The result Spain became one of the most impoverished and backward countries in Europe. Why? Spain did not have excess goods and services for the new wealth to be spent on. Inflation ate up all the new money. England and her navy/Pirates managed to get a significant portion of Spain's new found wealth back to England. And England (where there was excess goods and services is to be purchased) and her economy flourished making England one of the richest countries in Europe.

Lee

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PS: DO NOT SEND MONEY!

There's a bit more to the England/Spain comparo than Brother Lee says (prime example is that England nourished a middle/entrepreneurial class whereas Spain drove theirs out) but in the main, he's on to something. Not to say that the present income inequality and distributionist policies in the US are sustainable even medium-term because they aren't. The question is what form the revolt will take, NOT whether it will happen. I'm personally stocking up on pitchforks and torches--hey, SOMEBODY's gonna profit from it; why not me?

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

The old line has never changed. It is at its best a Utopian dream. This redistribution of wealth or one world order crap has been used by all the Homicidal Maniacs since time began. There can never be a one class society. There are those who look at life, dream and follow those dreams. They put the blood sweat and tears in to it. Yes they fall down! But isn't that what life is about (Learning to get up when life knocks you down). Then others do as little as possible and then Bitch about those who have more because they risked more.

While I am still on the fence about Michael Jacksons personal life. He did bring to life some simple truths. The song "Man in the Mirror" is most direct in this situation. The man in the mirror is the master of his own destine , if he is poor or wealthy. The choices we make such as thinking with our Johnson instead of staying in school. saving money, buying insurance to cover what we cant replace. But then Rev Obi-Wan is slipping off into his sermon. But before I go I will leave you with the words of two very smart fells.

1. Give a man a fish feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish you feed him for life. (Think Mr President sleep through church on this passage.)

2. The worst thing you can do for another man is to do that which he could do for himself. ( Yes Mr. Lincoln)

Your mind, your life. You decided.

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May the force be with you my CRT Jedi.

Redistribution of wealth does not mean you chop off the mountain tops entire to fill in the valleys, to create a smooth field. It does mean having a social safety net for those who need it AND at the same time doing what you can to obviate the conditions that keep people down which in many cases are the downtrodden themselves--for evidence look at the failed effort to radically reform and upgrade the DC school system. It does mean not allowing the intensely smart AND greedy to so completely game the system as has happened in the US--for example why is it that hedge-fund managers pay Federal taxes at a lesser rate than the manager of a K-mart? Because we have the best system of government that money can buy, that's why. Our middle income folks have steadily lost ground in nominal wages and purchasing power since the middle '70's with that money flowing predominantly to the top, and the social safety net for the permanent underclass being under permanently under assault even by the presumed centrists. There is class warfare being waged in the US and it's by the smart/and/greedy against all the rest of us. The poor aren't my classes enemy; it's the system-gamers at the top who are. The poor are just an easy target, just as undocumented aliens are.
Who's fantasy is "One World Order"? Certainly not mine--I celebrate diversity true enough but take comfort in my own culture and ethnicity. No, the "The OWO's" are the leaders of the transnationals who give a rat's ass less where the money comes from as long as they get and keep the majority of it. To believe otherwise is to indulge oneself in the sheerest fantasy--they live in a world that's completely different from ours.
Nobody but nobody I respect wants a 1-class society. And I agree that envy often replaces thought and effective action. The question is, how do we lead those folks into belief and action to improve their lives and society? I don't have an answer, do you?
Michael Jackson was a semi-talented Ch*ld molester who's entire solo career was owed to Quincy Jones. Period. Paragraph.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

is this your opinion, or a culmulative report culled on "facts" from the WSJ