Comments on: Freedom in the Meaningful Sense

By: Jose Thomas

Jose Thomas — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:07:40 +0000

I’m from kerala. Kerala’s high standard of living and life expectancy is due to economic growth. This is due to all the money coming into the state from abroad. Nearly 1/3 keralites don’t live in the state. We do not however, declare our wealth to the govt. If we did, most of our income would go to the central govt. Thus, in the statistics, we are shown to have less wealth. This is not true. We know that in a democracy like India, since kerala does not have enough population to have any say in the central govt., cheating the central government is the best thing to do. Actually, you guys have no idea how much we trick the tax departments. Land which is worth a 1000$ as far as the govt. knows is actually worth probably around 200,000$. We don’t want the uneducated politicians in north india to steal our money. Besides, by law we are doing everything legally. lol. There are many ways around the income tax.

By: Jose Thomas

Jose Thomas — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:07:00 +0000

By: Will Wilkinson

Will Wilkinson — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:47:00 +0000

I’m saying: No economic growth, no Chartres, i.e., Chartres only if economic growth. Not, If growth, then Chartres, obviously. But you can’t make something large, majestic, intricate and complex without money, and a fairly developed division of labor.

By: R. Light

R. Light — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 13:23:00 +0000

Chartes: If we were doing a historical dig, and we uncovered some building that was the largest and most majestic building in the whole city, we would reasonably conclude that this building held something that was of supereminent importance to the people of the city.

The largest and most majestic buildings in our cities are centers of commerce and money making.

–”Shulamite” (http://waitingforelijah.blogspot.com).

By: R. Light

R. Light — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 11:02:00 +0000

That’s, like, SO reductionistic, dude, to say Chartes is the product of economic development. (Forgive the Californiaese). I guess I sound like I’m just committing the genetic fallacy in saying Marx couldn’t have said it any better — Chartes’s just the “superstructure”, etc.

But dude, c’mon, there’s a heck of a lot more going on about Chartes’s aesthetic eminence than just the means (economics) which, indeed, granted, are/were totally indespensible for it’s having been built. I’d wholeheartedly recommend you have a look at political philosopher Pierre Manent’s phenomenal exposition of these themes (though certainly not of Chartes nor of architecture specifically, though its totally implicit) in _The City of Man_. Or, taking another big step back, Paul Rahe’s _Republic’s Ancient and Modern_ (first volume). If you read these, you’ll see why the economic interpretation (explanation) of Western civilization’s cultures/political structures, while incredibly instructive and illuminating in very decisive respects, is ultimately sorely inadequate.

By: Will Wilkinson

Will Wilkinson — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 11:33:00 +0000

Rob, But Chartres Cathedral is a product of economic growth!

By: R. Light

R. Light — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:24:00 +0000

Yup, the Sear’s Twr ain’t got nothin’ on Chartes Cathedral. As per your (sorry, but) incredibly risible statement: “Almost every bit of progress–[. . . . ] aesthetically, WHATEVER YOU LIKE–is a direct or indirect product of economic growth.” Karl Marx couldn’t have said it any better!

By: odograph

odograph — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 05:42:00 +0000

P.P.S. – there’s a bell curve for everying, and all of us (including me) are on “the wrong side” of some of them.

By: odograph

odograph — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 05:39:00 +0000

P.S. – manybe you think “bell curves” imply callousness, when I tihnk they demand compassion.

By: odograph

odograph — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 05:37:00 +0000

I used to be an ideolized conservative, in the sense that I thought everyone could work hard and get theirs just like I was getting mine.

Then I got to know people outside my university educated cohort, and tried to help some of them, tried to explalin that it was pretty easy to get ahead.

Some of them can’t. Maybe it’s an anger problem that makes them get mad and quit at every job they ever had. Maybe it’s just a perenial lack of worry that makes them treat each job as unserious until they blow it off, or vis versa.

You see people repeat those things, time and again, and you lose a bit of your free market idealism. Some people need help, and don’t need gain their “helplessness” by learning it.