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Food For Thought

From Robert Heinlein:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.


This is known as "bad luck."

[Via Instapundit]

 
 

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6 Comments

Mazoosa wrote:

This is why we need robust space launch. Then when the inmates complete taking over the asylum, we can be driven right off the planet and say "Sayonara, suckers!!"

ken anthony wrote:

Even if a few hundred people a year (which may take some time to achieve) were the norm for space colonization, that still leaves a lot of good people stuck in the asylum.

Jason Bontrager wrote:

I've always like Heinlein's (via Lazarus Long) advice on voting.

If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for...but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong. If this is too blind for your taste, consult some well-meaning fool (there is always one around) and ask his advice. Then vote the other way. This enables you to be a good citizen (if such is your wish) without spending the enormous amount of time on it that truly intelligent exercise of franchise requires.
Karl Hallowell wrote:

Even if a few hundred people a year (which may take some time to achieve) were the norm for space colonization, that still leaves a lot of good people stuck in the asylum.

No reason that a few hundred people a year will be the "norm".

Habitat Hermit wrote:

Sadly we're a long way from having 1 person a year living ever thereafter away from and independent of Earth. Maybe within half a century, maybe not.

Carl Pham wrote:

Maybe The One is part of the necessary groundwork, HH. Remember, people did not flee Europe in rickety leaky boats to the New World (where maybe half of them died in the first year) until they found the circumstances of life in the Old Country just intolerable.

There's a gap of more than 100 years between when the New World was discovered and when it was seriously colonized, a gap that is explained by the steady curtailment over that century of individual liberty and conscience produced by the Counter-Reformation and the consolidation of the central power of absolute monarchies in England and France.

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This page contains a single entry by Rand Simberg published on November 1, 2008 8:25 AM.

Well, That's Refreshing was the previous entry in this blog.

The State Will Wither Away is the next entry in this blog.

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