On Fri, 22 Nov 1996, `Jon Galt' wrote:
What an interesting topic for this list. I really must point out that most wealth in this country is first generation wealth - in other words, most wealth is EARNED, not "handed down".
Please back this statement up. The fact is, contrary to our grand self-image, America has one of the lowest rates of class mobility in the world. Just shy of forty percent of the wealth (in land and capital) in the U.S. is possessed by one percent of the population. This far outstrips, for example, Great Britain, where the top one percent of society holds 18% of the nation's wealth. Continuing down the line, the top 20% of the us population hold more than 80% of the nation's wealth. [Source New York Times, April 17. 1995, p.1] _However_, that's not what I came here to talk to you about tonight:
too much wealth in relation to those around them. Adam Back (and the cypherpunks?) is (are) against people being prevented from accumulating "too much" wealth in relation to those around them.
An oversimplification. Cypherpunks are in favor of people using technology to take their own privacy into their own hands. Anything outside the scope of this issue is an aside. Cypherpunks tend toward anarchism / libertarianism as a result of their strong bent toward personal freedom, but this generalization obscures the fact that cypherpunks is a _pragmatic_ group, addressing issues of importance to both left-leaning and right-leaning anarchist / libertarian types. To split the group on lines of economic principle is to undermine the value of this shared ground. Let's face it -- when it comes to privacy, the US and the world are in a state of crisis right now. It would be a serious mistake to let our disagreements on economic policy drive us from the fight for liberty. -- Jim Wise System Administrator GSAPP, Columbia University jim@santafe.arch.columbia.edu http://www.arch.columbia.edu/~jim * Finger for PGP public key *