@cystic:
maybe some rich people have “earned” better rightts. Or is “to earn” an evil infinitive in Europe?
Not necessarily :)…. but it’s just so hard to tell wether someone earned or stole :), esp. when you look at the big coorporations and their bosses… they claim they earn, but obviously steal ;).
Certainly those who have inherited and stolen money are not amoung those (but in a communist society people will obtain power through similar nepotistic/criminal means too) who may be described as earning something, …
Well, in a communist society, there would be neither need nor desire to become criminal :).
however for the rest of us, i like the idea of working to earn stuff, and those who won’t work well many (not all - the disabled etc.) have made their bed, they may now lie in it.
Would be the same in a communist society. But there of course, you want to work for the better of all, a different kind of motivation than working for the better of you. You can have competition in that, but it will be fair and just competition, without trying to gain power/influence/prestige on the cost of others, but just by what you have achieved working.
In a capitalist environment i compete against other people all the time. In industry i competed against other reps, other companies. In medical school i compete for cherished residency spots in nice cities with the rest of the Canadian medical student population. Should not the best candidate for that plastics spot get it? Why should i, if i’m not willing wot work for it?
You shouldn’t, of course.
… and you don’t try to make yourself look better on the cost of others, do you?
Without copmetition all you have is an arbitrary sorting of the brain surgeons from the “monkey workers” (i.e. people who do monkey work). Which do you want working on your brain? For me, i don’t just want some doctor doing operations on my brain, I want THE BEST - the one who worked harder than everyone else, who learned more. Competition - it worked for evolution, it can work in society.
It can work for society…. unfortunately, in nature “cheating” is detected and punished. You can’t “pretend” to an advantage in the competition in nature. You can in society though, or why else do we need commercials, marketing and all that. You can cheat your way through human society, claim things for yourself you’ve never done etc… I have heard a small story, of someone giving a talk about some research he did: whenever he was involved in the work in the lab he said “i found”, “i did”, “i saw”… whenever he was not involved, he siad “we saw”, “we did”, “we found”…
that’s what i call cheating, and it is commonplace in this society!