Sender: millershed@EARTHLINK.NET
Subject: Re: A focus on empowerment vs. a focus on inequality
Date: Thu, May 22, 2014
Msg: 101013

Inequality per se can't be the problem because economic equality is not the answer. If we all got X gallons of gas per week, that wouldn't be enough for those with a much longer commute, while it would be too much for those who walk to work. So we have to be talking about having basic needs met (which are different for different people) to achieve a good quality of life--that is, at the least, aim for overcoming scarcity.

In a world dominated by scarcity, it is only natural for the have nots to want some of the excess goods of the haves (that is, to desire distribution to be more equal). So what, in our economic system, generates scarcity? I would offer that it is the goal of maximizing profits. Note that this is different than MAKING profits. The goal of maximizing profits is a moral affront, since it is based on a "take more than you give" mentality. Yet we accept this as a natural and just law of the market.

But it's a non-systemic goal. In an ecosystem, wolves don't seek to maximize their deer kill. They satisfy their appetites. That is, they meet their needs. Yet our needs--this applies to most in the middle class as well as to the poor--are never met because we never pay off our debt. Instead, we spend our lives stressed while trying to pay off our debts. Certainly the loss of good jobs and their replacement by low-paying jobs in and after this recession only swells the pool of those who share this very common experience of economic life. Again, in such a situation, it's hard not to point at those who live in marked excess of their needs and to wish (or demand) that they spread the wealth around.

But it makes more sense to look at what generates scarcity than at compensating for it by attempts at redistribution, which will always be flawed and resented. Is cap and prioritize the latter? If so, might it mostly be a short-term solution, most useful while we try to redesign the system--especially by reexamining and redefining its core values and paradigms?

John Miller
(952) 797-2302
Green Tea Party Movement

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawrence Chickering
Sent: May 20, 2014 12:27 PM
To: TRANSPARTISAN@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG
Subject: Re: [TRANSPARTISAN] A focus on empowerment vs. a focus on inequality

Michael expresses a position aligned with John Rawls's work: that our central 

moral focus should be on improving the condition of the poor -- reducing 

poverty -- rather than on reducing inequality.  To believe otherwise (as 

a thought-experiment) -- if the two values conflict -- is to prefer reducing 

inequality to reducing poverty; or actually increasing poverty to reduce 

inequality.  An odd position, to say the least.  

Lawry Chickering

Educate Girls Globally

Author: Beyond Left and Right (1993) and (with James S. Turner) Voice of the 

People: The Transpartisan Imperative in American Life (2008)

 

On May 20, 2014, at 07:43, Michael Strong <michael@FLOWIDEALISM.ORG> wrote:

Steven Johnson provides the usual talking points on inequality in response to Lawry's focus on empowerment.  I would expect we have all heard variations on this data before.

First of all, I agree that it is morally outrageous that some people, many of them wicked people, are rich and that others, many of them innocent children, are poor.

Secondly, I have no a priori preference for an particular rate of taxation or redistribution.  If I were to be convinced that a tax rate of 99% on incomes over x would improve the condition of the poor on a global basis, then I'd be all for it.

But ultimately, no matter what the data is on inequality, if more spending doesn't improve the lives of the poor, then I'm against it.  The entire goal should be to improve the quality of life for human beings - not to make an arbitrary set of numbers meet an arbitrary set of criteria.

Two questions:

1. Can we agree that improving lives is more important than is "inequality"?

2.  And, if improving lives is indeed more important than inequality per se, can we agree that something like empowerment of the human spirit, as so eloquently articulated by Lawry, is an essential aspect of improving lives?

-- 
Michael Strong
CEO and Chief Visionary Officer
FLOW, Inc.
www.flowidealism.org

For the definitive Conscious Capitalism book, see Be the Solution:  How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems, by Michael Strong with John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods Market, Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Hernando de Soto, Co-Chair of the U.N. Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, and others, and listen to John Mackey's audio CD Passion and Purpose:  The Power of Conscious Capitalism, both available at amazon.com or www.flowidealism.org.

Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

Leonardo Da Vinci

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A. Lawrence Chickering

Founder and President, Educate Girls Globally (EGG)

1485 Main St., Ste 103c

St. Helena, CA  94574

415.235.6628

email:  lchick0203@gmail.com

www.educategirls.org

On May 20, 2014, at 07:43, Michael Strong <michael@FLOWIDEALISM.ORG> wrote:

Steven Johnson provides the usual talking points on inequality in response to Lawry's focus on empowerment.  I would expect we have all heard variations on this data before.

First of all, I agree that it is morally outrageous that some people, many of them wicked people, are rich and that others, many of them innocent children, are poor.

Secondly, I have no a priori preference for an particular rate of taxation or redistribution.  If I were to be convinced that a tax rate of 99% on incomes over x would improve the condition of the poor on a global basis, then I'd be all for it.

But ultimately, no matter what the data is on inequality, if more spending doesn't improve the lives of the poor, then I'm against it.  The entire goal should be to improve the quality of life for human beings - not to make an arbitrary set of numbers meet an arbitrary set of criteria.

Two questions:

1. Can we agree that improving lives is more important than is "inequality"?

2.  And, if improving lives is indeed more important than inequality per se, can we agree that something like empowerment of the human spirit, as so eloquently articulated by Lawry, is an essential aspect of improving lives?

--
Michael Strong
CEO and Chief Visionary Officer
FLOW, Inc.
www.flowidealism.org

For the definitive Conscious Capitalism book, see Be the Solution:  How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World's Problems, by Michael Strong with John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods Market, Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Hernando de Soto, Co-Chair of the U.N. Commission on the Legal Empowerment of the Poor, and others, and listen to John Mackey's audio CD Passion and Purpose:  The Power of Conscious Capitalism, both available at amazon.com or www.flowidealism.org.

Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good

When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.

Leonardo Da Vinci

---

To unsubscribe from the TRANSPARTISAN list, click the following link:
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A. Lawrence Chickering

Founder and President, Educate Girls Globally (EGG)

1485 Main St., Ste 103c

St. Helena, CA  94574

415.235.6628

email:  lchick0203@gmail.com

www.educategirls.org

---

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www.greenteaparty.us  FB: green tea party movement  Home: (952) 887-2763  Cell (952) 797-2302

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