Message-ID: <339E748B.F8AE14B5@mail.ptl.com.mt> Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 11:48:59 +0200 From: "V. Dimitroff" <mailto:vdimitroff@MAIL.PTL.COM.MT> Subject: Re: average American's perception of the US role in the 1st To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dawit Angelo wrote: >
------- > The richest 1% of families held:
>
------------------ > The richest 10% of families held:
etc. etc. etc.Bastards! Kill them! Guillotine them! Stomp them! Smash them! Suck their blood! Take what they "held" and share among all the rest, so we're never poor again!
The publishing and further "use" of such statistics is aimed (though not always consciously) at response such as the above.
The majority of WEALTH (in every aspect and meaning of wealth, including immaterial abstract values such as intellectual) has ALWAYS been held by a minority of the population. So what? Nothing wrong so far - i won't be surprised if upon proper mathematical integration of historical and geographic statistics, the good old 80:20 rule may apply. It can be noticed even outside the human world, among animals, even those that do not form "societies"...Obviously, hidden natural mechanisms take care of using these ratios (not changing them) in EVERYONE'S LONG-TERM INTEREST. Wealth re-distribution is just as short-term as (too-)rapid accumulation.
I believe that DEVELOPMENT and TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER are among the conscious interests of those "holders", and this was made natural to them as part of the above-mentioned mechanisms. No matter how clever they may be, though, (and this isn't always the case)they cannot alone manage their "holdings" and thereby implement said mechanisms. They do it via a vast army of "non-holders", and this is where the problems lie. Sadly enough, we are part of that army, though hardly ever at colonel level. I doubt that any of this list's participants is even a leutenant in the "non-holders" army.
Our obligation, in my view, is not only the routine daily labour towards noble targets. It is to discover, scientifically prove and massively publicise DICREPANCIES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION of the mechanisms, and creatively suggest corrective paths.
Forgive me for the junk mail. V.