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Yes, but here is the rub. Once upon a time only the aristocrats could afford to be educated. Then it was deemed by democratic government that education should b
by logicalmind 16y ago
Yes, but here is the rub. Once upon a time only the aristocrats could afford to be educated. Then it was deemed by democratic government that education should be afforded to all. The people voted for that, knowing full well that it would cost everyone some of their hard-earned money (taxes).
Generations have gone by and many people take the things that are "common goods" for granted. Unless John Carmack's family is from an aristocratic lineage and his family is wealthy enough to have given him privately funded everything, then he is also "standing on the shoulders of giants" who have paved his way. For him to now become essentially an aristocrat and now say that each people should fend for themselves is difficult to comprehend. At least Newton was humble enough to realize how he got to where he got.
- igravious 16y agoI am in complete agreement with you. The lucky majority have hot water on tap, we have access to thousands of songs instantaneously (people forget how miraculous this is), we have many creature comforts that would put us out of reach of most royalty going back not even two hundred years. One of the most uplifting Ted Talks* I ever watched was this economist who argued that in one hundred years time poor Africa would still be poor but that their standard of living would surpass anybody alive today. (I find it hard to imagine it now but he had lots of statistics and graphs I tell ya!) * http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_asia_s_rise_how_and_when.html http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/hans_rosling_asia_s_rise_h...