RE: FrameMaker Gets a Boost (news item in India Times, Nov. 24)

["Ede, Craig" <craig.ede@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As if the concept of wealth were a strictly economic (that is to say, a materialist view of "goods") calculation. The materialist view of goods seems to be the particular blind spot of capitalism.

While populism, socialism, nationalism AND capitalism no doubt have questionable supporters, ideas are not responsible for the people that believe in them. These ideas survive in the "marketplace of ideas" for a reason, and ascend and descend in cycles that are difficult to predict. 

Spoutingly,

Craig 
"You rescue a drowning man and he complains that you didn't save his hat." Dimly recalled (maybe fallacious and inaccurately represented) quotation attributed to FDR on the subject of laissez faire capitalism and his program to resuscitate it in a new form.

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Combs [mailto:richard.combs@voyanttech.com]
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 2:22 PM
To: Framers@FrameUsers.com; framers@omsys.com
Subject: RE: FrameMaker Gets a Boost (news item in India Times, Nov. 24)


Jim Stauffer wrote: 
 
> Ah, yes. The goals of free market, global capitalism... Make 
> a small group
> of stockholders rich by exploiting cheap labor all over the world.

The goal of _all_ economic activity is to seek out less-valued resources (capital, labor, and/or raw materials) and convert them into more-valued resources. Through this process, the sum total of the wealth of the world increases, and we all become better off. 

The popularity of this kind of populist/socialist/nationalist sentiment merely demonstrates the profound lack of economic literacy today. For anyone with a basic knowledge of economics, this issue was settled over 200 years ago -- see the Law of Comparative Advantage. 

If you want to reject the fundamental laws of economics, then be consistent about it and go back to growing your own food and weaving your own clothes. And, for gosh sake, don't buy anything "imported" from outside your own village or hamlet. ;-) 

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
------






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