> My point being that you've attributed something to me with no actual basis.
An accurate quote is an actual basis.
> The rich benefit vastly more from society than the rest of us - they benefit for every worker they have that society has educated, for every worker that can drive to work thanks to good roads, etc etc.
Rubbish. The educated worker benefits more from the education than the employer, absent some actual coercion. (Read "threatened or actual force", not "Google refused to hire me.")
> You don't think it's bad position to be in, to be in the poorest segments of society?
No.
The goodness/badness of my position does not depend on whether someone else can jet to Aruba. The goodness/badness of my position depends only on my position. Telling people otherwise is both wrong and harmful.
For example, I'd much rather be poor in much of the US than middle class in Mexico. I'd much rather be poor in the US than upper class in some of the post-colonial countries in modern Africa. I'd much rather be middle class in Mexico than upper-class/rich in the middle ages.
Do you really think that I'm not choosing better even though in each case I'm picking relative poverty?
Now, you could argue that rich and poor used to have it bad but now we've advanced so that only poor have it bad....
> To be unable to finance care for your chronic illness if you lose your job? Frankly, I think I'd loathe that situation.
That's irrelevant to this discussion unless you'd be happy if you were rich and had some incurable illness. (Hint: the real problem is your situation, not that someone else has it better.)
> I simply admire the basic civility
I like civility too, but given a choice between progress and civility, I'll take progress every time because progress makes people's lives better.
> Care to elaborate?
Not much beyond you don't know much about the US or you don't understand what averages obscure.
Comments
> My point being that you've attributed something to me with no actual basis.
An accurate quote is an actual basis.
> The rich benefit vastly more from society than the rest of us - they benefit for every worker they have that society has educated, for every worker that can drive to work thanks to good roads, etc etc.
Rubbish. The educated worker benefits more from the education than the employer, absent some actual coercion. (Read "threatened or actual force", not "Google refused to hire me.")
> You don't think it's bad position to be in, to be in the poorest segments of society?
No.
The goodness/badness of my position does not depend on whether someone else can jet to Aruba. The goodness/badness of my position depends only on my position. Telling people otherwise is both wrong and harmful.
For example, I'd much rather be poor in much of the US than middle class in Mexico. I'd much rather be poor in the US than upper class in some of the post-colonial countries in modern Africa. I'd much rather be middle class in Mexico than upper-class/rich in the middle ages.
Do you really think that I'm not choosing better even though in each case I'm picking relative poverty?
Now, you could argue that rich and poor used to have it bad but now we've advanced so that only poor have it bad....
> To be unable to finance care for your chronic illness if you lose your job? Frankly, I think I'd loathe that situation.
That's irrelevant to this discussion unless you'd be happy if you were rich and had some incurable illness. (Hint: the real problem is your situation, not that someone else has it better.)
> I simply admire the basic civility
I like civility too, but given a choice between progress and civility, I'll take progress every time because progress makes people's lives better.
> Care to elaborate?
Not much beyond you don't know much about the US or you don't understand what averages obscure.