Occupy Wall Street?

[kowalskil]

Occupy Wall Street?​

The last issue of Montclarion, a student newspaper at Montclair State University,*published an article of Grover Furr, about the Occupy Wall Street movement:

http://www.themontclarion.org/archives/3740261

Yes, rich people always want to be richer and richer. This is unfortunate; no one knows how to stop this, without taking away constructive motivation. What fraction of Bill Gates' fortune is consumed and what fraction is productively invested? My guess is that the first fraction is much less than 10%, and that he is not a rare exception.

What does Professor Furr have to offer us? Consider a complex machine which works but not perfectly. Anyone can destroy it; no advanced knowledge is usually needed to accomplish this. But one has to be highly knowledgeable in order to repair it, or to design a better replacement. I am thinking about sophisticated engines, airplanes, TV sets, X ray scanners, computers, airconditioners, oil refineries, etc.

The same is true for an economic system. No system is perfect; but some are more efficient than others. Trying to destroy US capitalism *without offering something better is likely to create a lot of misery. I am thinking about what Lenin and Stalin did, as decribed in my two short books. These books are now freely available online; the links are at:

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/links.html

Note that even now, one hundred years after the Soviet revolution, standards of living in Russia are much lower than in the US, and in other western countries.

Ludwik Kowalski*(see Wikipedia)
.

 

[dogtowner]

Occupy Wall Street?​

The last issue of Montclarion, a student newspaper at Montclair State University,*published an article of Grover Furr, about the Occupy Wall Street movement:

http://www.themontclarion.org/archives/3740261

Yes, rich people always want to be richer and richer. This is unfortunate; no one knows how to stop this, without taking away constructive motivation. What fraction of Bill Gates' fortune is consumed and what fraction is productively invested? My guess is that the first fraction is much less than 10%, and that he is not a rare exception.

What does Professor Furr have to offer us? Consider a complex machine which works but not perfectly. Anyone can destroy it; no advanced knowledge is usually needed to accomplish this. But one has to be highly knowledgeable in order to repair it, or to design a better replacement. I am thinking about sophisticated engines, airplanes, TV sets, X ray scanners, computers, airconditioners, oil refineries, etc.

The same is true for an economic system. No system is perfect; but some are more efficient than others. Trying to destroy US capitalism *without offering something better is likely to create a lot of misery. I am thinking about what Lenin and Stalin did, as decribed in my two short books. These books are now freely available online; the links are at:

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/links.html

Note that even now, one hundred years after the Soviet revolution, standards of living in Russia are much lower than in the US, and in other western countries.

Ludwik Kowalski*(see Wikipedia)
.

a point seemingly lost on those so enamored of OWS.

 

[Little-Acorn]

Yes, rich people always want to be richer and richer.

So do poor people.

This is unfortunate

It is? Why?

no one knows how to stop this,

Do you have some reason why it should be "stopped"?


Not much point in reading further. Too high a kook factor in the OP.