).
I know that it is contrary to the illusions many have of today, but with the technology today, MORE is being given to the needy than ever before, and poverty in this world is on the decline. In fact, many of the the worst hell holes of today, such as Venezuela and North Korea are wonderful Socialist havens where, while slamming capitalist greed, will not let their starving, suffering, people receive the abundance of charitable food, medicine etc, that us capitalist pigs want to give them!I also have to say that I do not question the book of mormon, I'm sure that it's right about those blessings, but I just don't understand how our current way of living could be righteous. Where do we have to draw the line?
D and C 104:18 Therefore, if any man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment.
Are we Gentile nations not taking of the abundance of this world? Driving, Flying, Eating, Consuming while others produce that stuff to hirrible conditions?
I sympathize with this statement. I live mostly off the grid. We do not have air conditioning and only recently fixed our heater so we could use it. There are many lights in the house that don't work and we don't bother to replace them, nor do we really notice most of the time. I don't like most electronics and don't like most things about computers, although I do like to use it for learning, writing and listening to music. I'm pretty sure if the power went out today, I would be just about the least sad person about it.gclayjr wrote: ↑May 30th, 2017, 2:37 pm Elefant,
Those who wax nostalgic over life in the past never lived it. I am reminded of an article written by Charles Kuralt, who used to narrate the "On The Road" TV show. He grew up in the south during the great depression. One of Roosevelt's New Deal projects. the REA brought electricity to the rural south. He remembered his mother sitting down and crying when the REA started to put up electric lines to their farm.
She knew tough difficult life would never be the same. She would not have to wash cloths on a washboard. She knew that she would not have to carry water from a well into a house anymore. She know that so many of those things that made her life so difficult, would no longer be.
Those who wax nostalgic for those times never actually had to live them.
In the early 20th century, 70%-80% of people worked in agriculture. It was tough and miserable, and paid little. When tractors and electricity came around to automate this, everybody celebrated. Today fewer that 3% of people work in agriculture.
Manufacturing used to be the best way for a blue collar man to be able to provide well for his family. Despite the problems with it, unions (I am not a particular fan of Unions), did keep the salaries up, and led to a reasonably comfortable life for those who could work those jobs, and there were quite a few of them.
Today, few people in the U.S. work in manufacturing. The politically correct thing to say for those on the right is that those jobs went to CHina or 3rd world countries. Many did , but most of them were lost to automation. I know, because most of my career was involved in destroying those jobs. The Unions and government regulations helped in that destruction, because, those were the sources of most of the costs of manufacturing. So many companies, hired people like me and my associates to automate those processes. The easy way to cost justify that automation was to eliminate jobs. These were not low paying miserable jobs like "hoe boys" in the 30s, but blue collar often Union jobs that may have been routine, but paid well.
Many justified the social and economic effect of losing these jobs with the idea that it is better to move to "Information jobs". We are learning that most of these jobs are even easier to farm out to cheap foreign labor, than manufacturing jobs.
A benefit of all of this is that we do have a lot of cool stuff, and the prices are ridiculously low. The downside is that it is more difficult to find good paying jobs to pay for this stuff, or even life's necessities.
I do think that we need to think outside of the box. I'm not sure what my opinion is on Trump's plan to create trade barriers via tariffs. It will cause prices to go up. We may get a few jobs, but will it be enough. Quien Sabe?
I do know that this generation is going to have to be more creative in figuring out how to provide for themselves than mine was. I am glad that I am 65 and retired, and did not have to figure out some these difficult things to provide for my family.
However, I can assure you as difficult it may be, going back to a pre-industrial society is not the answer.
However, maybe via war or riots, we can get back there. God help us if we do!
Regards,
George Clay
