IP: Re: A different perspective on boom times

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>From:Poor Richard
>To: <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 10:38:23 -0700
>
>
> > >AT THE TURN OF A CENTURY, BETTER OPTIONS REMAIN
> > > ...
> > >         To criticize this institutional madness can seem bold, even
> > > brave. How sad.
> > >
> > >         Hopefully, we'll find more strength for such honesty in the 21st
> > > century.
>
>Poor Richard feels compelled to respond.
>
>Criticizing "this institutional madness" is neither "bold nor brave", rather
>it is all too predictable.
>
>Despite its many joys, the reason that Poor Richard dreads this time of
>year, is that it brings out the folks who are desperate to remind us not to
>have a good time because others aren't. Poor Richard apologizes for having a
>good time. Really, he's sorry. But, we already suffered through the politics
>of guilt back in the 1992 presidential election, and frankly, it didn't get
>us anywhere.
>
>Besides, beyond an aside suggesting moving some of the money from the guns
>column of the budget (read: Pentagon's budget) get moved to the butter
>column of the budget (read: UNICEF's budget), there aren't any options,
>better or worse, suggested in the original column at all.
>
>We've seen a large number of grand experiments in the last 60 years, and
>frankly very few of them had much success. Poor Richard apologizes for that
>too. He also apologizes for P.J. O'Rourke's observation that you get more
>world peace out of every dollar spent on the US Marines than every dollar
>donated by Ben & Jerry's.
>
>So, to sum up: if someone's got an original, workable idea, the body politic
>would love to chew on it. In the interim, we'll keep fine-tuning what we
>have today, which seems to work considerably better than anything else we've
>tried before...


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A Happy Holiday and a safe New Year

from Dave and GG Farber

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