[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[Michael Hamilton]

On 1/11/06, Platt Holden <pholden at davtv.com> wrote:
> Hi David M:
>
> > Well it is lovely to have nice quality clothes, food, shelter,
> > entertainment, art, etc. It is wasteful to have to throw all
> > your clothes away because consumerism via fashion tells
> > you to, it is also wasteful to build a car that is built to race
> > and you never race it but enjoy the status of owning it, etc, etc.
> > Waste is only bad in the context or there being others who
> > suffer greatly for shortages of basic commodities.
>
> I think your premise that there's only so much of basic commodities to go
> around can be challenged. History proves that the zero sum game concept is a
> fallacy. Our economy continues to grow as it has for the past 200 years,
> raising the standard of living for everyone.

Hi Platt,

This assumption that economic growth automatically raises the quality
of life needs to be challenged. May I refer you to a short article:
http://www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4192

You won't be impressed by some of the rhetoric, particularly about
corporations, but the main reasons I find that article valuable are
its assessment of economic development firmly based on quality of
life, and its assessment that a large proportion of our wealth was not
obtained from hard work and industry, but from good ol' fashioned
plunder.

Regards,
Mike