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#1
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
Consider Alexander Fleming and his discovery of perhaps the world’s most important medical advancement: Penicillin. By all accounts, Fleming was a slob. He discovered Penicillin because he was so slovenly that some of his Petri dishes had developed a fungus - like so many leftovers in a bachelor’s refrigerator – and thanks to the idleness afforded him by researching grants he was able to discern value in this. Of course he couldn’t even manufacture a stable and useful strain of the bacteria. Instead it was the U.S. and British governments that realized this advancement. As a capitalist, Fleming was a failure. Jonas Salk, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of medicine, was an academic working at a university with government research money readily available as a result of mass polio terror. He successfully found a vaccine and promptly proceeded to refuse to patent his discovery so that it would benefit society as thoroughly and widely as possible. As a capitalist, he was no Andrew Carnegie. Louis Pasteur, whose contributions to society’s health were as fearless as they were extensive, might well have made a great capitalist. He was bold, and precise. Had he chosen to make mousetraps I am quite sure it would have brought mice to the brink of extinction. I would posit that his choice not to put his formidable intellect to work amassing wealth for himself speaks volumes about an intellectual’s relationship to riches. It is not in society’s interest to compel every man to run the rat race. To casually accept that only supply and demand – only greed – can motivate the great evolutions in our history is to call Pasteur a fool and a fraud. Briefly, consider what market driven medicine has brought mankind: Snake oil, heroin and The Purple Pill (ask your doctor about The Purple Pill). Oh, and of course Ritalin and Xanax. Where would society be without the off label uses of these capitalist ventures? Ultimately, we must stop hailing successful capitalists as the standard-bearers of human advancement. There are the Henry Fords and the Bill Gateses, but there are also the Philip Morrises and the P.T. Barnums. More importantly there are the pioneers whose lives paid little or no heed to capitalizing and it is their names that have contributed to the history of health care in such a way that we now consider it reasonable to contemplate a society where patient X doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated for his sickness. After all, it isn’t Polio, or Smallpox or Typhoid they can’t afford to treat, is it? From KOS |
#2
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
On May 13, 12:01*pm, HK wrote:
Consider Alexander Fleming and his discovery of perhaps the world’s most important medical advancement: Penicillin. By all accounts, Fleming was a slob. He discovered Penicillin because he was so slovenly that some of his Petri dishes had developed a fungus - like so many leftovers in a bachelor’s refrigerator – and thanks to the idleness afforded him by researching grants he was able to discern value in this. Of course he couldn’t even manufacture a stable and useful strain of the bacteria. Instead it was the U.S. and British governments that realized this advancement. As a capitalist, Fleming was a failure. Jonas Salk, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of medicine, was an academic working at a university with government research money readily available as a result of mass polio terror. He successfully found a vaccine and promptly proceeded to refuse to patent his discovery so that it would benefit society as thoroughly and widely as possible. As a capitalist, he was no Andrew Carnegie. Louis Pasteur, whose contributions to society’s health were as fearless as they were extensive, might well have made a great capitalist. He was bold, and precise. Had he chosen to make mousetraps I am quite sure it would have brought mice to the brink of extinction. I would posit that his choice not to put his formidable intellect to work amassing wealth for himself speaks volumes about an intellectual’s relationship to riches. It is not in society’s interest to compel every man to run the rat race. To casually accept that only supply and demand – only greed – can motivate the great evolutions in our history is to call Pasteur a fool and a fraud. Briefly, consider what market driven medicine has brought mankind: Snake oil, heroin and The Purple Pill (ask your doctor about The Purple Pill). Oh, and of course Ritalin and Xanax. Where would society be without the off label uses of these capitalist ventures? Ultimately, we must stop hailing successful capitalists as the standard-bearers of human advancement. There are the Henry Fords and the Bill Gateses, but there are also the Philip Morrises and the P.T. Barnums. More importantly there are the pioneers whose lives paid little or no heed to capitalizing and it is their names that have contributed to the history of health care in such a way that we now consider it reasonable to contemplate a society where patient X doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated for his sickness. After all, it isn’t Polio, or Smallpox or Typhoid they can’t afford to treat, is it? *From KOS Give everything you own away, then talk about greed, asshole. Oops, forgot, Karen has it all. |
#3
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
On May 13, 1:24*pm, wrote:
On May 13, 12:01*pm, HK wrote: Consider Alexander Fleming and his discovery of perhaps the world’s most important medical advancement: Penicillin. By all accounts, Fleming was a slob. He discovered Penicillin because he was so slovenly that some of his Petri dishes had developed a fungus - like so many leftovers in a bachelor’s refrigerator – and thanks to the idleness afforded him by researching grants he was able to discern value in this. Of course he couldn’t even manufacture a stable and useful strain of the bacteria. Instead it was the U.S. and British governments that realized this advancement. As a capitalist, Fleming was a failure. Jonas Salk, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of medicine, was an academic working at a university with government research money readily available as a result of mass polio terror. He successfully found a vaccine and promptly proceeded to refuse to patent his discovery so that it would benefit society as thoroughly and widely as possible. As a capitalist, he was no Andrew Carnegie. Louis Pasteur, whose contributions to society’s health were as fearless as they were extensive, might well have made a great capitalist. He was bold, and precise. Had he chosen to make mousetraps I am quite sure it would have brought mice to the brink of extinction. I would posit that his choice not to put his formidable intellect to work amassing wealth for himself speaks volumes about an intellectual’s relationship to riches. It is not in society’s interest to compel every man to run the rat race. To casually accept that only supply and demand – only greed – can motivate the great evolutions in our history is to call Pasteur a fool and a fraud. Briefly, consider what market driven medicine has brought mankind: Snake oil, heroin and The Purple Pill (ask your doctor about The Purple Pill).. Oh, and of course Ritalin and Xanax. Where would society be without the off label uses of these capitalist ventures? Ultimately, we must stop hailing successful capitalists as the standard-bearers of human advancement. There are the Henry Fords and the Bill Gateses, but there are also the Philip Morrises and the P.T. Barnums. More importantly there are the pioneers whose lives paid little or no heed to capitalizing and it is their names that have contributed to the history of health care in such a way that we now consider it reasonable to contemplate a society where patient X doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated for his sickness. After all, it isn’t Polio, or Smallpox or Typhoid they can’t afford to treat, is it? *From KOS Give everything you own away, then talk about greed, asshole. Oops, forgot, Karen has it all. Lemme see, telephones, telegraph, the transistor, the printing press, personal computers, lightbulbs, electrical generators, most anticancer drugs, most new antibiotics, and on and on etc. Now for govt funded research, Nerve gas, Mustard gas, Chlorine as a weapon, Nuclear weapons, sterilization of minorities, harvesting of organs from political prisoners, etc. Seems to me that the table is slanted waaaaaaaay toward good advances being made by capitalist inventors and BAD, bad, bad inventions made by govt. Remember, capitalists have no interest in killing people and govts do. Hk is basically a doofus |
#4
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
On May 13, 7:42*pm, Frogwatch wrote:
On May 13, 1:24*pm, wrote: On May 13, 12:01*pm, HK wrote: Consider Alexander Fleming and his discovery of perhaps the world’s most important medical advancement: Penicillin. By all accounts, Fleming was a slob. He discovered Penicillin because he was so slovenly that some of his Petri dishes had developed a fungus - like so many leftovers in a bachelor’s refrigerator – and thanks to the idleness afforded him by researching grants he was able to discern value in this. Of course he couldn’t even manufacture a stable and useful strain of the bacteria. Instead it was the U.S. and British governments that realized this advancement. As a capitalist, Fleming was a failure. Jonas Salk, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of medicine, was an academic working at a university with government research money readily available as a result of mass polio terror. He successfully found a vaccine and promptly proceeded to refuse to patent his discovery so that it would benefit society as thoroughly and widely as possible.. As a capitalist, he was no Andrew Carnegie. Louis Pasteur, whose contributions to society’s health were as fearless as they were extensive, might well have made a great capitalist. He was bold, and precise. Had he chosen to make mousetraps I am quite sure it would have brought mice to the brink of extinction. I would posit that his choice not to put his formidable intellect to work amassing wealth for himself speaks volumes about an intellectual’s relationship to riches. It is not in society’s interest to compel every man to run the rat race. To casually accept that only supply and demand – only greed – can motivate the great evolutions in our history is to call Pasteur a fool and a fraud. Briefly, consider what market driven medicine has brought mankind: Snake oil, heroin and The Purple Pill (ask your doctor about The Purple Pill). Oh, and of course Ritalin and Xanax. Where would society be without the off label uses of these capitalist ventures? Ultimately, we must stop hailing successful capitalists as the standard-bearers of human advancement. There are the Henry Fords and the Bill Gateses, but there are also the Philip Morrises and the P.T. Barnums. More importantly there are the pioneers whose lives paid little or no heed to capitalizing and it is their names that have contributed to the history of health care in such a way that we now consider it reasonable to contemplate a society where patient X doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated for his sickness. After all, it isn’t Polio, or Smallpox or Typhoid they can’t afford to treat, is it? *From KOS Give everything you own away, then talk about greed, asshole. Oops, forgot, Karen has it all. Lemme see, telephones, telegraph, the transistor, the printing press, personal computers, lightbulbs, electrical generators, most anticancer drugs, most new antibiotics, and on and on etc. Now for govt funded research, Nerve gas, Mustard gas, Chlorine as a weapon, Nuclear weapons, sterilization of minorities, harvesting of organs from political prisoners, etc. Seems to me that the table is slanted waaaaaaaay toward good advances being made by capitalist inventors and BAD, bad, bad inventions made by govt. *Remember, capitalists have no interest in killing people and govts do. Hk is basically a doofus and Furthermore, consider Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite and was so afraid it would be used for weapons that he gave away his fortune to finance Peace Prizes and scientific prizes. Samuel Colt invented the revolver on his own while on a transatlantic voyage and it was said that God made all men but Sam Colt made them equal. Birdseye invented the method for freezing vegies without turning em into mush on his own. Robert Goddard invented liquid fueled rockets on his own The Wright Bros invented on their own. The govt funded Smithsonian funded Lilienthal's "aerodrome" that failed to fly and then refused to give credit to the Wrights Otto Diesel invented diesel engines on his own. The guy who privately sequenced the human genome in 1/4 the time the govt project said it would take at less than 1/4 the cost. Nylon was invented privately by Dupont Air Conditioning was invented by Dr. John Gorrie and later by Carrier both privately. The Bessemer process for making steel was private Production of aluminum Public Key Encryption, the basis of almost all internet commerce was independently invented by a private individual AFTER it was discovered by govt employees in england and thought to be useless and publication was suppressed. Westinghouse invented braking systems for trains that saved countless lives and then went on to develop electrical equipment. In fact, the ratio of useful inventions funded by the govt to private funding is VERY small. Govt labs are basically a joke. In fact, I was recently told by an employee of NIST that they have invented NOTHING useful in the past 10 years and patent very little. I'd have to say that private invention is very moral whereas govt funded research tends to be focused on killing things. Inventors have no desire to kill their customers. |
#5
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
On Wed, 13 May 2009 17:01:44 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote: I'd have to say that private invention is very moral whereas govt funded research tends to be focused on killing things. Whoa. What about Tang? Surely you know about Tang. --Vic |
#6
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
Vic Smith wrote:
On Wed, 13 May 2009 17:01:44 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch wrote: I'd have to say that private invention is very moral whereas govt funded research tends to be focused on killing things. Whoa. What about Tang? Surely you know about Tang. Tried it once or twice 40 years ago. I have no desire to ever try it again. |
#7
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
On May 13, 7:42*pm, Frogwatch wrote:
On May 13, 1:24*pm, wrote: On May 13, 12:01*pm, HK wrote: Consider Alexander Fleming and his discovery of perhaps the world’s most important medical advancement: Penicillin. By all accounts, Fleming was a slob. He discovered Penicillin because he was so slovenly that some of his Petri dishes had developed a fungus - like so many leftovers in a bachelor’s refrigerator – and thanks to the idleness afforded him by researching grants he was able to discern value in this. Of course he couldn’t even manufacture a stable and useful strain of the bacteria. Instead it was the U.S. and British governments that realized this advancement. As a capitalist, Fleming was a failure. Jonas Salk, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of medicine, was an academic working at a university with government research money readily available as a result of mass polio terror. He successfully found a vaccine and promptly proceeded to refuse to patent his discovery so that it would benefit society as thoroughly and widely as possible.. As a capitalist, he was no Andrew Carnegie. Louis Pasteur, whose contributions to society’s health were as fearless as they were extensive, might well have made a great capitalist. He was bold, and precise. Had he chosen to make mousetraps I am quite sure it would have brought mice to the brink of extinction. I would posit that his choice not to put his formidable intellect to work amassing wealth for himself speaks volumes about an intellectual’s relationship to riches. It is not in society’s interest to compel every man to run the rat race. To casually accept that only supply and demand – only greed – can motivate the great evolutions in our history is to call Pasteur a fool and a fraud. Briefly, consider what market driven medicine has brought mankind: Snake oil, heroin and The Purple Pill (ask your doctor about The Purple Pill). Oh, and of course Ritalin and Xanax. Where would society be without the off label uses of these capitalist ventures? Ultimately, we must stop hailing successful capitalists as the standard-bearers of human advancement. There are the Henry Fords and the Bill Gateses, but there are also the Philip Morrises and the P.T. Barnums. More importantly there are the pioneers whose lives paid little or no heed to capitalizing and it is their names that have contributed to the history of health care in such a way that we now consider it reasonable to contemplate a society where patient X doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated for his sickness. After all, it isn’t Polio, or Smallpox or Typhoid they can’t afford to treat, is it? *From KOS Give everything you own away, then talk about greed, asshole. Oops, forgot, Karen has it all. Lemme see, telephones, telegraph, the transistor, the printing press, personal computers, lightbulbs, electrical generators, most anticancer drugs, most new antibiotics, and on and on etc. Now for govt funded research, Nerve gas, Mustard gas, Chlorine as a weapon, Nuclear weapons, sterilization of minorities, harvesting of organs from political prisoners, etc. Seems to me that the table is slanted waaaaaaaay toward good advances being made by capitalist inventors and BAD, bad, bad inventions made by govt. *Remember, capitalists have no interest in killing people and govts do. Hk is basically a doofus The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney. The automatic reaper invented by McKormick greatly increased the yields from farms. Almost ALL machinery for farms was privately invented so your food can be directly traced to private inventors. High yield varieties of most crops were pvtly invented. If you want to see where we would be if we relied on govt inventions, l;ook at the Soviet Union that could only copy western inventions and would have STARVED without wheat from private US farms. Govt funded research is so bad that Lysenkoism was the official doctrine of biological inheritance in the Soviet Union and held back Soviet agriculture for decades resulting in mass famine Attempts by govt "research" in China to increase rice yields by using machines resultwed in famine when the machines penetrated the clay base of flooded rice beds causing drying out of the rice. Capitalism has increased food production so much that people 200 years ago would be amazed. ALL and I realy do mean ALL of our abundant food is the dirrect result of capitalists. Without capitalism, we would have mass starvation. Thank GOD for greedy capitalists. |
#8
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
On Wed, 13 May 2009 17:11:38 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch
wrote: The automatic reaper invented by McKormick greatly increased the yields from farms. Of course it makes the grain grow better, just knowing what lies ahead. Casady |
#9
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
Richard Casady wrote:
On Wed, 13 May 2009 17:11:38 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch wrote: The automatic reaper invented by McKormick greatly increased the yields from farms. Of course it makes the grain grow better, just knowing what lies ahead. Casady Amazing the twists and turns posts here take... :) |
#10
posted to rec.boats
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Is Our Sort of Greedy Capitalism the Answer?
"Frogwatch" wrote in message ... On May 13, 1:24 pm, wrote: On May 13, 12:01 pm, HK wrote: Consider Alexander Fleming and his discovery of perhaps the world’s most important medical advancement: Penicillin. By all accounts, Fleming was a slob. He discovered Penicillin because he was so slovenly that some of his Petri dishes had developed a fungus - like so many leftovers in a bachelor’s refrigerator – and thanks to the idleness afforded him by researching grants he was able to discern value in this. Of course he couldn’t even manufacture a stable and useful strain of the bacteria. Instead it was the U.S. and British governments that realized this advancement. As a capitalist, Fleming was a failure. Jonas Salk, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of medicine, was an academic working at a university with government research money readily available as a result of mass polio terror. He successfully found a vaccine and promptly proceeded to refuse to patent his discovery so that it would benefit society as thoroughly and widely as possible. As a capitalist, he was no Andrew Carnegie. Louis Pasteur, whose contributions to society’s health were as fearless as they were extensive, might well have made a great capitalist. He was bold, and precise. Had he chosen to make mousetraps I am quite sure it would have brought mice to the brink of extinction. I would posit that his choice not to put his formidable intellect to work amassing wealth for himself speaks volumes about an intellectual’s relationship to riches. It is not in society’s interest to compel every man to run the rat race. To casually accept that only supply and demand – only greed – can motivate the great evolutions in our history is to call Pasteur a fool and a fraud. Briefly, consider what market driven medicine has brought mankind: Snake oil, heroin and The Purple Pill (ask your doctor about The Purple Pill). Oh, and of course Ritalin and Xanax. Where would society be without the off label uses of these capitalist ventures? Ultimately, we must stop hailing successful capitalists as the standard-bearers of human advancement. There are the Henry Fords and the Bill Gateses, but there are also the Philip Morrises and the P.T. Barnums. More importantly there are the pioneers whose lives paid little or no heed to capitalizing and it is their names that have contributed to the history of health care in such a way that we now consider it reasonable to contemplate a society where patient X doesn’t necessarily deserve to be treated for his sickness. After all, it isn’t Polio, or Smallpox or Typhoid they can’t afford to treat, is it? From KOS Give everything you own away, then talk about greed, asshole. Oops, forgot, Karen has it all. Lemme see, telephones, telegraph, the transistor, the printing press, personal computers, lightbulbs, electrical generators, most anticancer drugs, most new antibiotics, and on and on etc. Now for govt funded research, Nerve gas, Mustard gas, Chlorine as a weapon, Nuclear weapons, sterilization of minorities, harvesting of organs from political prisoners, etc. Seems to me that the table is slanted waaaaaaaay toward good advances being made by capitalist inventors and BAD, bad, bad inventions made by govt. Remember, capitalists have no interest in killing people and govts do. Hk is basically a doofus ------------------ Well done. And you are correct. Eisboch |
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