[Buddha-l] RE: Article of possible interest--correction

[curt]

Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:
> curt schreef:
>>
>> Of course all of this begs the real question: why are poor people 
>> poor, enslaved people enslaved, etc? Those who wish to pooh-pooh the 
>> "they deserve it because of bad karma from past lives" theory should 
>> be ready to provide some explanation of their own, or else it is 
>> merely an exercise in darkness cursing.
> My guess: coïncidence and stupidity. Samsara stinks and we are the 
> only persons who can do something about it. The world is not a movie 
> or a computergame, no one is in charge, there's no scenario.
>
When it comes to economics I don't think it's accurate to say that "no 
one is in charge". Sometimes the invisible hand turns out to be not so 
invisible.

My own hunch is that poor people are poor because this is a necessary 
precondition for rich people to be rich - since material wealth is 
finite. This would lead to the hypothesis that poor people could become 
less poor by taking some of the money from the rich people and giving it 
to the poor people. I am still working out the details of this theory, 
but I think it has promise. One avenue that I am considering is that 
there appears to be "an easy way" and "a hard way" to bring this about - 
and the rich people appear to be the ones who are in the best position 
to determine which "way" is to be taken.

- Curt