From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Apr 2 14:59:22 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail2.one.net (mail2.one.net [206.112.192.100]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 125A137B965 for ; Sun, 2 Apr 2000 14:59:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from carleton@one.net) Received: from ztown3-1-191.adsl.one.net ([216.23.20.191] EHLO miltonstreet.com ident: IDENT-NOT-QUERIED [port 10482]) by mail2.one.net with ESMTP id <265462-15005>; Sun, 2 Apr 2000 17:59:13 -0400 Message-ID: <38E7C296.D36FF658@miltonstreet.com> From: Sam Carleton X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: What is freebsd References: <38E77CE7.F9AF7ADD@3web.net> <38E781A0.5B3A062F@miltonstreet.com> <20000402105431.I21029@fw.wintelcom.net> <38E78669.CB142A56@miltonstreet.com> <20000402195537.B85754@strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk> <004c01bf9cd8$580a4400$0300000a@doot.org> <20000402143800.A3077@titan.vcu.edu> <954707212.38e7ad0cafdc7@www.hub.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 17:58:59 -0400 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Jeff MacDonald wrote: > what\'s wrong with communism ? fundimentaly it\'s a good idea, > only problem is people are corrupt. On the surface it appears to be a good idea, but there is a subtle flaw in communism. Unless I am mistaken, the concept behind communism is that all things are equal. Everyone owns everything. This sounds GREAT, it is most definitely a feel-good way to look at the world. It was not the desire for all to be equal that provoked man to leave the caves and start farming. Humans are lazy creatures, man started farming because it was easier then living in caves and hunting, it was also more comfortable. One must also look at the fact that man is a pack animal. In all packs there are those that want to be lead and those that want to lead. Those that want to lead have the desire to lead because they are competitive creatures. In one-way or another every man (and woman) is competitive. The subtle, but fatal, flaw in the idea that everyone owns everything is that competition must be eliminated. Without competition, there is no reason to work. If working will not make your life more enjoyable, why work? The reason the USA has so many people well off is because if you work hard, you will be successful. The downside is that if you don’t work hard, you will be left out in the cold. It is up to the individual who is successful to help those who are trying to become successful; it is NOT the government’s job. In the USA there are a lot more successful people out there helping others the one might think, it simply is not news worth and/or not advertised. An example, a classmate of my stepdaughter is having problems in school. My stepdaughter had been tutoring the classmate after school until other girls started to get jealous. After the whole mess finally calmed down, the classmate still wanted my stepdaughters help. This young lady stayed at school for an hour and half until her mother (divorced) could pick her up at school. But my wife and I knew the right thing to do was to reach out to this young lady and have her come to our house after school so my wife (who is a full time mom) could help out both young ladies. I am not looking for praise; my point is that I believe there is a lot of this type of thing going on in the USA, those with that are helping those without. In a capitalistic society like the USA, those that want to work hard and prosper can do exactly that. And those that want to be lazy can have hard lives can do that. Anyone and everyone is free to do as they please. With communism everyone is brought down to a common level. It is easier to take away from those that have then it is to give to those without. In my opinion the idea is that the government prevents others from getting in your way and prevents you from stopping others from succeeding. One hundred years ago that was not the way things where in the USA, but they are much closer to that today! To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message