Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Atlantic wants people to view climate change as a wartime situation. They demand Americans accept a lower standard of living, to defeat Global Warming.
According to The Atlantic;
Why Solving Climate Change Will Be Like Mobilizing for War
… Assuming we do manage to significantly accelerate deployment without cancerous levels of corporatist corruption, if emissions targets still remain out of reach, some growth must be temporarily sacrificed. At the same time, investment across the portfolio of energy technologies will need to continue.
In other words, we are contemplating the sorts of austerities associated with wartime economies. For ordinary Americans, austerities might include an end to expansive suburban lifestyles and budget air travel, and an accelerated return to high-density urban living and train travel. For businesses, this might mean rethinking entire supply chains, as high-emissions sectors become unviable under new emissions regimes.
What Gates and others are advocating for is not so much a technological revolution as a technocratic one. One for which there is no successful peacetime precedent. Which is not to say, of course, that it cannot work. There is always a first time for every new level of complexity and scale in human cooperation. But it’s sobering to look back at the (partial) precedents we do have. …
I must say, given repeated claims that subsidising green energy will stimulate the economy, it seems peculiar that greens also believe people should adopt a wartime austerity mentality, and brace themselves for a lower standard of living. Perhaps the economic stimulus will be delivered in the form of more green air miles, and an increase in the number of climate conferences.
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Well, if The Atlantic means anything like America’s longest war, we are talking business as usual.
Austerity for everyone to pay for green subsidies.
Follow the money
If I make fossils prohibitively expensive by claiming CO2 is bad, then after a period of adjustment I don’t need to fund alt energy with stipends because it’s “naturally” competitive.
Of course the consumer pays for that and a percentage of that “new” profit money is supposed to go to the poor undeveloped nations.
Voila’
“Either you are with me or against me”
::::: whooops, sorry wrong con job ::::::
Let’s start by sacrificing The Atlantic
For ordinary Americans, austerities might include an end to expansive suburban lifestyles and budget air travel, and an accelerated return to high-density urban living and train travel.
But that’s not for The Atlantic reader, because they are not ordinary, they are influential.
Magazine Reader Profile
Affluent and accomplished, The Atlantic readers represent a vital audience of the country’s most influential thought leaders.
GENDER
MALE 59% FEMALE 41%
AGE MEDIAN AGE 50
AFFLUENCE: HHI $ 200,000 14% HHI $ 100,000 46%
MEDIAN HHI : $ 94,233
EDUCATION: POST GRADUATE DEGREE 41% GRADUATED COLLEGE 77%
INFLUENCE: INFLUENTIALS 35% PROFESSIONAL /MANAGERIAL 47% TOP MANAGEMENT 13%
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/front/files/MediaKit_2011.pdf
And you know they are influential, because they say so 12 times in 15 pages.
What a happy coincidence that their climate scare justifies everything they have always wanted anyway; force us back into high density cities where we are more easily taxed and controlled; take from the poor and give to the rich; etc., etc.
One small step for a magazine, a giant leap back to the 1800s for mankind…
EM
Yes indeed, a touch of afluenza. I spent the evening watching hans rosling videos. I’ve really enjoyed his gapminder.org webpage for quite a while. His most recent best is a infomercial on extreme poverty. Statistical trends point to it ending worldwide within 15 years. 1970 and after appeared to be the point of departure when we started to take a nosedive. If you have e an hour check out his latest video.
Sadly, for all his wonderful work on blowing up ignorance concerning beliefs vs reality, he really does a poor job with climate change.
I wonder why that is so.
Speaking of wartime sacrifices, I once read a sociological hypothesis that posits that war is a biological safety valve meant to rid the world of excess breeding-age males. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but this new “wartime” footing is apparently meant to be gender neutral, making for politically correct human population reductions. They want no suburbs, no cars, no air travel, high density city living, everyone traveling on foot or by train, the only thing they are leaving out of their little wish list is to tell us how many humans they want the Earth to support, and their plan for getting us to that reduction.
Reno
Follow the money to the influential ideas.
I scoff at the notion that you are right. Then I relax and think again. Bill Gates thinks the best number is about 500 M worldwide.
As I observe the world, I find that money doesn’t really change you, it just accentuates certain aspects of your being.
Gosh, I meet their demographic rather well other than being a bit older — and apparently wiser since I find The Atlantic hardly influential at all. Curious….
What do you expect from a Guardian rag?
Once again, the cure is worse than the (misdiagnosed) disease.
True enough.
I’d suggest the government take the same approach to climate change that it takes with the U.S. national debt: Let future generations deal with it.
Control over sheeple relies on a continual state of scarcity, enabling a continuous ongoing “emergency” measures rationing and restricting access to vital resources. Right out of the playbook written by Mr Orwell. I wonder if there is ANYTHING that can be done to defeat this movement, which will stomp on the face of humanity, for possibly millennia. GK
I was going to post almost the same comment. Just reread 1984 a few weeks ago and when Winston reads from the book The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, it was very clear to me that the totalitarian left has found their perpetual war, climate change, the war to finally rid the world of capitalism and enter into the totalitarian dream of total control of the population.
How very true. Not only is the left succeding but here in the UK they are turning the Conservative party leftwards also.
We are experiencing the effects of a State imposed Ideology. Climate Change is a major part of the ideological system–you must believe in it or you oppose the State’s power and authority. Currently it’s enforced via federal funding and the PC police. The State has used the power of the Judicial and Executive branches to circumvent the Legislature and impose various rules, guide lines and standards to legitimize the war on climate change.
The media is not dis-similar to the State and for the most part it is a mouthpiece for the ideology; praising and supporting climate change adherents while punishing and demonizing anyone with an opposing view. Beyond that, try having an online discussion about any part of climate change–any hint of opposition will bring a pro-climate change troll down on your head–policing the ideology (WUWT is an exception).
We need people like Judy Curry and Freeman Dyson to stop voting for the leftist coalition, hoping that it will fulfill the things they want, when it’s constituent interests want opposite things. In some ways, they become sort of like Boxer, the abused horse from Orwell’s Animal Farm. In voting for Obama, they serve the “cause” with their political voice (ie. their votes), even if they voice opposition to the weakness of the alarmist science.
The Democrats target the protected class. Since they’ve been pretty good at both creating the protected classes and giving them stuff (including rights) they continue to get their vote.
The next likely group to vote for Dem is the mellenials. Hands down Dem voters.
Now couple the above with how the Dem are light years ahead of using the Internet to get the vote out.
Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
-Orwell
Newspeak is the political language that eliminates expressive thought and unnecessary words, which promotes the narrowing of thought so that the mind is more easily controlled. Newspeak loses words by removing words that represent opposing thought. You can see this in the immigration and climate debate. What was illegal aliens is now just immigration so that if you oppose the government on illegal immigration you will be labeled anti-immigration and a nativist. AGW has been changed to climate change so that if you question the influence of man on warming, you are labeled as someone who believes the climate does not change or anti-science.
Very good.
Be careful, you’ll steal the trade of a select few editors.
Even better, start a WUWT offshoot.
Take common everyday articles and red line through newspeak. Show your readers.
Of course, if you already see they are doing that, you can also understand that these articles are written by a team of spinners. They start with a theme, surround it with psuedofacts and reduce the theme to less than 30 words.
Colbert had a team who unraveled bushspeak.
It made him a star.
It’s eerie to realize how apt this analogy is. It’s almost as if these people are tuning into the same supernal source that inspired Orwell. But while he was recording it, they embody it.
For some Orwell’s 1984 is a warning for other an instruction manual , you pick what you think the greens see it has.
“Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” -George Orwell, 1984
Getting us, the peasants, the accept less has been the plan all along. However, the all-wise priests who will know how to save us from the wrath of Mother Earth will not need to make sacrifices.
As long as the sheeple deliver baskets of fruits and exotic foods and virgins to the steps of the climate temple then the climate priests will keep the evil warming at bay with sufficient “adjustments” when the time comes.
Joel
Well done. Let’s dance.
If it cools, they will claim victory.
If it cools too much they will give you an allotment of fossils as a temporary measure.
If it get to warm, you’ll have to do better (sacrifice more).
Always pushing the button of conservation and charity.
Yeah, well, I don’t see anyone doing this. The Earnestly-Concerned NPR/Atlantic Class wring their hands and shake their heads, maybe if they’ve really got money to burn to whack a couple of solar panels on their roof to up their PC cred. Cancel flights? Buy less crap from China? Turn back the heat? FUGGEDABOUTIT! After all, it’s the 3rd World’s “problem” now . . .
Well, the lie didn’t work (“green economic boom”) so why not go for the truth? At least then nobody can complain when we are all reduced to penury.
It takes a rather peculiar form of idiocy to believe that taking money from one person by force, and giving it to others will be good for the economy.
It takes a rather peculiar form of idiocy the believe that taking money from the masses, and giving it to very few will be good to the masses and the economy.
Pat: Who do you believe is doing that? The leftists do when they tax everyone to give money to politically favored individuals and companies.
If you are referring to lowered taxes, that is allowing individuals to keep more of what they earned, nothing is being taken from anyone.
PS, lower taxes have resulted in increased economic activity every time it has been tried.
MarkW says: ” lower taxes have resulted in increased economic activity every time it has been tried.”
…
That is not true.
Look at the mess Kansas is in right now after Sam Brownback cut taxes…
..
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article31716450.html
Steve, he said “economic activity”, not tax revenue. Still, is that the only example that you can think of? If so, then I think the point has been proven.
“Who do you believe is doing that?”
Your own government is doing that, by the trillions, every year. And nothing to do with left, right or whatever your party of choice is. Billions in subsidies to oil companies, billions to special interest groups and corporations in tax breaks (like Walmart), trillions in “defense” equipment like tanks nobody wants that will never be used and planes that don’t work. All that money, funneled to the very few 1% richest people in your country, who “coincidentally” OWN your politicians.
I bet you still believe you live in a democracy.
William R…
..
The example in Kansas does in fact show that “economic activity” has not benefited from tax reductions.
..
When someone says ” every time it has been tried.” all you need is one counterexample to prove their statement is wrong.
Steve Jones (replying to William R…)..
Dead wrong. Kansas cut taxes IN THE MIDDLE OF OBAMA’S Longest-ever recession, lengthened by Oboma’s tax increases, federal wasted dollars, federal ‘stimulus” money and a “zero-rate” government loan program, and EXTREME high energy prices deliberately caused by higher energy taxes and regulatory penalties of Oboma’s (your’s!) failed CAGW policies.
Even in Lenin/Stalin’s Russian economy (1920’s and again in Khrushchev’s reforms after Stalin died), tax cuts increased productivity and raised the economy. Kennedy’s tax cuts worked. Reagan’s tax cuts worked. Bush’s tax cuts worked.
RACookPE1978 says: “N THE MIDDLE OF OBAMA’S Longest-ever recession,”
…
The “Great Recession” started as a result of the housing crisis of 2007-2008. Just to refresh your memory, Obama did not take office until January 2009, long after the start of the recession. So, you should be calling it “BUSH’S RECESSION”
…
Secondly, the Brownback did not take office in Kansas until 2011, and did not sign the tax cut legislation until May 2012.
…
Needless to say, the tax cuts did not improve the economy in Kansas at all.
The deep recession in 2008 came as the subsidized housing bubble (propped up BY forced democrat lending requirements to people who did have the resources to actually afford houses even at real world prices!) collapsed beginning mid-2007. And THAT housing price bubble collapsed because Nancy Peolsi’s 2007 House of Representatives began energy and oil regulatory and restrictions BECAUSE she feared CAGW and demanded immediate oil price increases and increased restrictions on federal lands.
ALL of the fracking energy produced now that is saving the economy for Oboma is DESPITE these regulations and is the result of drilling SINCE 2007-2008. But most especially due to Arabian price sell-outs desired to
(1) aid Oboma
(2) destroy the North Dakota, Pennsylvania, OK, and TX oil companies. And hurt ISIS-Iran as well.
PS RACookPE1978……Neighboring states to Kansas, which did not cut taxes, have had improving economies as compared to Kansas.
RACookPE1978 says: ” forced democrat lending requirements”
…
You neglect to realize that the Bush was in control of things when the housing bubble inflated and burst. Trying to blame the democrats is foolish on your part. The blame goes more to the Wall Street bankers that bundled toxic mortgages and sold them to unsuspecting investors. The “kaissez-faire” attitude of the Bush Administration contributed to Wall Street excesses. Lending requirements are set by the banking system, not a particular political party.
PS RACookPE1978
..
When you say: “Nancy Peolsi’s 2007 House of Representatives began energy and oil regulatory and restrictions ” you show that you are ignorant of how regulation works in DC.
…
Bush is in charge of the EPA, and the Interior Deprtment. Congress doesn’t make regulations, so your claim that Pelosi began restrictions is laughable. Congress can pass legislation, and the president must sign it. Congress cannot by itself issue regulations.
Great link, Steve. The tax cuts were signed into law in 2012, as you know…and 4 straight months of rising unemployment all the way up to 4.6% (lol) 4 1/2 years later means those tax cuts didn’t stimulate the economy? Their labor force and employment took off for 3 years after those cuts.
Leftists everywhere are always going on and on about how other people have to suffer in order to bring about their view of an ideal world.
Bingo, MarkW!
New problem, same old solution.
It was always about power and control.
P.S. the “problem” is that someone, somewhere, is prosperous and happy.
Someone, somewhere is more prosperous and happier. And they can’t stand it.
“In other words, we are contemplating the sorts of austerities associated with wartime economies. For ordinary Americans, austerities might include an end to expansive suburban lifestyles and budget air travel, and an accelerated return to high-density urban living and train travel. For businesses, this might mean rethinking entire supply chains, as high-emissions sectors become [nonviable] under new emissions.” regimes.”
Agree with Neo. If we have to implement austerity measures, let’s start with folding up The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Michael Mann’s position at Penn State. Those should be good for starters.
…defeat climate change
What does that even mean??
That’s the key – it means whatever they want it to at any point in time.
exactly- undefined terms, circular reasoning, capricious policies that just happen to benefit those forcing others to accept them. All part of the extremist wackjob bigot behavior profile.
Anything they want it to.
…defeat climate change
More to the point how will these idiots even know when they’ve “won”
They’ve “won” when the “new emissions regimes” choke the free market.
A few victories
1. The codification of CO2 as a pollutant was and is a big deal. They already won that little juicy morsel.
2. They won’t get their carbon tax anytime soon but they have secured a 1T dollar over 10 year slush fund.
3. They seized the moral high ground with the Pope.
Next step is to use that CO2 boogeyman and apply it locally (within the US first) so that class action lawsuits can claim disparate impact. I make fossil energy for you, it degrades my life so you owe me money type deal.
Disparate impact was recently declared valid concerning the fair housing act in the US. The next step is to apply it to places like coal mining communities or perhaps near a major refinery.
Supposedly back in the late 90s (a quick Google will get you close), this was the plan all along as Clintons administration (Gore VP) was trying to promote greater home ownership among minorities and the poor. The CO2 angle was a way to further placate the base. Bush stalled it and preferred the Iraq hoax. This administration picked up the CAGW (CO2) hoax.
So what does it look like when they “win” ?
The Clinton vision was to lift the poor from poverty and be rewarded with a happy base.
Lots of merging trends on this one.
In short, what they are proposing is a war on democracy. Their “solution” to a false problem is to lower living standards and by various propaganda efforts encourage people to not only accept, but to positively affirm those lower living standards. It is an abomination of the highest order.
Plain-spoken truth, sir.
Yikes! there’s a large “Ice Blob” that has formed in Antarctica east of the Fauklands…lol
Must be a computer glitch:
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/S_bm_extent_hires.png
Unless we are talking secret war, then we should have the courage to discuss it openly and often at presidential debates and fireside chats before general elections. It’s not as though global warming did a sneak attack in between elections.
“In other words, we are contemplating the sorts of austerities associated with wartime economies. For ordinary Americans, austerities might include an end to expansive suburban lifestyles and budget air travel, and an accelerated return to high-density urban living and train travel. For businesses, this might mean rethinking entire supply chains, as high-emissions sectors become [nonviable] under new emissions.” regimes.”
I notice that austerity only includes “ordinary” Americans (you and me) and businesses (engines of the economy). Glaringly absent is any austerity for the benevolent, elite overlords.
The Atlantic is a powerful first wave journal.
It sets the tone for the copycats.
This one rekindles the moral high ground.
Rattles sabres to the cause.
Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the Intellectual Ivy Elite leaning forward for Paris.
If you know its a pseudoscience hoax, you also realize it’s a game. The more money, the more power, the better your odds at winning when it’s your turn.
Even if it gets colder the ones above will claim victory for preparing us for “the change” and sell you access to their solutions. If we all suffer a drop in living standards, they will offer a way up.
Perhaps, the Apache Nation has the right approach. Perhaps the best one can do is protect your independence according to your means, your wealth, your power. Keep distance from the lie(s) because it corrupts the soul (or whatever part of you that is valued the most) or engage in battle based on your means.
Make no mistake. We are living thru a significant transitional era. As a side note, but equally important to the trends above, I’m sure many of you are aware of the growing computer processing power. This fact is a driving factor in an increasing belief that the world can be organized into a nice orderly flow. The road to …
http://28oa9i1t08037ue3m1l0i861.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/PPTExponentialGrowthof_Computing-1.jpg
Full article
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html
Knute – take it from a seasoned computer engineer (me). The artificial intelligence projections are as stupid as the climate model projections. There is one small but very important detail AI nuts – err, I mean people, overlook. Brains do not run on “calculations per second”, although true computer dreamers like to believe that they do. I have looked into this in depth and I am convinced that they don’t. I don’t know for sure what they run on, but it ain’t calcs per second. That is why the chart is meaningless in the real world. Calculations are meaningless without the algorithms to drive them. And the algorithms part is where we haven’t a clue how brains do what they do.
Roger that Joe.
But they are true believers in AI solving the problems of mankind. Doesnt matter if its possible. Its ticklishly true enough to give life to the phantom. It’s part of the pseudoscience.
Hubris at play.
Follow the money. New money from the new “clean” industries are challenging old money from classic “dirty” ones.
The greenies are going to “brace themselves for a lower standard of living”?
HA!
You mean “brace themselves for a lower standard of living FOR EVERYBODY BUT THEMSELVES.”
But perhaps they will let us eat cake.
Nothing Americans do, or the West does, will stop or substantially slow the rise in worldwide CO2. Americans won’t go on a wartime austerity footing once that is pointed out to them. That this isn’t obvious to this author and his fellow field marshalls shows how out of touch he and they are. They can’t see what will happen next–after they sound their trumpets.
Aiming for the stars, successfully shooting the moon.
Hyperbole is a climate boon.
A public rife with guilt and original sin,
Incremental victories, the Greens will win.
And if the greens win we’ll be utterly screwed.
Since they aren’t too pragmatic, I don’t mean to be rude.
They’ll spend all the money on a vast solar park.
And then recommend candles for when it goes dark.
Has potential for a pop up book with a glittering candle at the end.
When the peasant’s last candle burned it wasn’t the end,
As the consensus’ arguments continued to wend.
After the Leap manifesto we all fled the metropolis,
The plebs agree, we’d have preferred a zombie apocalypse.
I’ll move to the hills before I move to an urban city. First because I can’t own a gun in NYC, second because it’s the last place I want to be in the event of a pandemic.
Maybe I’m getting paranoid, but this idea strikes me as a rounding up of the herd.
Ben Carson so far is the only guy to get the gun issue right. Your right to keep and bear arms in the US is to complicate life for Tyrants it is not just some kind of convenience for vigilantes.
Then there are the people who would laugh in your face at the notion that such guns would ever be needed to prevent government-sanctioned jackboots in this country. …But in the same breath soberly explain how total free-press is needed for the exact same purpose.
Climate Taliban. There. Almost sort of relevant.
The fact that the Taliban have guns is what makes them hard to deal with! I mean there probably aren’t a lot of women volunteering to be treated like that except for the social convention that that’s the way things will be so long as these guys have a way to fight back with impunity.
Why can’t you own a gun in NYC?
Who says you can’t own a gun in NYC?
..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_New_York#New_York_City
Legally you can. However getting the permit requires knowing the right people and donating massive amounts to the right political campaigns.
It’s tedious, but you don’t have to know someone other than an attorney or gun dealer familiar with the process. The most important thing to remember is you have to show competency and a legitimate reason. Home defense is considered legitimate and you have to be able to articulate that you understand when you can use deadly force.
I know it’s an emotional issue and perhaps it should be easier, but I’m kind of alright with the process. I’m not a NYer so perhaps I’m out of line, but the cautious approach to who gets a permit seems prudent.
http://newyorkcityguns.com/getting-a-nyc-handgun-permit/
As has been shown in a CA lawsuit, you don’t need to show cause in order to exercise an constitutional right. Do I need to fill out a form and show just cause in order to speak my opinion, or to go to church, or to have a meeting? I anticipate a court challenge to any NYC law that says otherwise, if it’s not underway already.
I wonder if the person writing this article realizes that they are one of the sheeple who will be required to “settle for less”? We seem to read about this type on nonsensical idiocy at least once a week from one news source or another, each of the writers always seems to assume that they are part of the elite who will not need to sacrifice much. I don’t know any journalists personally, but my understanding has always been that they are paid relatively little (with rare exceptions) which would put them squarely in the same category as the rest of us when those austerity measures are enforced.
Articles like this are written as a team. Conceptual story line, research, selection of the villian, the hero and the lemmings. Perhaps some other sideline roles. Similar content development as goes on in TV and movies.
And these people are like other people. They have a circle of influence and being influenced. Careers to think about. Mouths to feed. Schools they want their kids to go to.
Pet causes. They may even have similar fears as you do.
Knute, I am not sure what you are intending to mean with your comment. You fail to address my original point that people who write stories such as this are usually not among the elite and will become part of the “poor” segment of society who must sacrifice their lifestyle and lives even to the cause based on the solutions they propose. Regardless of how a person comes to be influenced in any given direction they are still responsible for thinking about the consequences of what they propose and weighing the benefits of maintaining our current course versus the new course they suggest.
I agree.
I am also aware that integrity and accountability are noble values executed by imperfect people.
Is there something more that I’ve left unaddressed ?
Hunger Games 2.0
They imagine that they will be able to dictate our lifestyles and how we live after they’ve destroyed the economy. They imagine high-density urban living – cities. Actually what would happen is they destroy the economy and then those that are lucky and plucky enough to still be among the living will be married to the land living in a feudal state of existence.
Kevin
Great phrase
“lucky and plucky”.
+5
Asking someone in the US, where “poor” people make $2000/month including government aid to sacrifice is one thing, asking a truly poor person in India making $60/month to sacrifice for a possible, maybe, future climate catastrophe is something else again.
Andy
Ah, a core belief ?
Not wanting to be wasteful and a desire to help your fellow man are two of the core heartstrings. Conservation and charity.
In the cost accounting of the CAGW movement, money will flow from richer developed nations to the poorer, less developed nations (ie. The 1T fund over 10 years as seed money). This will also be done on a local level to varying degrees of success based on the country. What I predict you’ll see is a sort of competition amongst those nations of who can be the be conservationists and the most charitable.
So, it begs the question :
Does your core charitable belief include a 10% reduction in your standard of living for a _______ increase in theirs ?
Be sb “best” … ugh
The problem is that giving money to poor countries results in the leaders of those poor countries rapidly increasing their bank accounts (in Switzerland) and no change to the people in those countries. Even if the money did go to the real poor it would be in the “give a man a fish” way and not “teach him to fish” which is the longer term solution. The only people that believe in money transfers from one country to another are those bankers who will salami slice generous sums for themselves as they do the transfers. For example a significant percentage of UK’s foreign aid never leaves the country and goes into the coffers of City companies running the ‘Foreign Aid Programme’. Companies run by CEO’s that spend significant time lobbying politicians on the merits of foreign aid to the poor countries.
Ian
And the lion’s share of people agree that is a problem. The easy counter to that is we’ll create a better foundation. Better managed, more accountable, more teach a man to fish oriented.
So let’s say, for the sake of argument, that man can actually do that well. And yes, it’s hard to believe, but there will always be someone trying it better because charity is a core heartstrings belief. Not to get too far into the hypothetical, but there are examples of particularly small outfits that do this well.
So back to my question ….
What percentage _____ % drop in your standard of living are you willing to sustain in order that the less fortunate can increase theirs ?
Btw, this is a significant belief that allows film flam artists the opportunity to get all kinds of malarkey through man’s BS filter.
0%. Charity is not charity if it is forced…then it is theft.
+1 William Money taken by force is never charity.
@Knute you mentioned above after my last comment that everyone has their pet causes they work for, that extends to me. I will sacrifice a small percent of my lifestyle for my pet cause, but this is not it. So the answer is no, I will not sacrifice some percentage of my lifestyle so that they can have a better life. If that makes me sound heartless then so be it.
Griggs
I’m not raising the concept as debate, but I am raising it as observation. CAGW has been allowed to fester as an untruth because it kind of sort of maybe placates the desire to give to the less fortunate. Perhaps the most common exasperated answer in conversation:
“Oh, come on now, these scientists could find a reason to argue about anything. At the end of the day, it’s good that the choices of the fortunate consider the impact on the less fortunate.”
Intellectual laziness meets false guilt.
Another breakthrough, “telling it like it is” article cribbed from the notes of the very first “agenda 21” meeting, what? some 40 years ago? Nobody suggested delivering a dish of austerity to Wall Street when they speculated and invented financial instruments that threatened the world financial system. No they rewarded them with payouts that resulted in financial rewards for the very people responsible for that disaster and dried up credit to do useful industrial things! Look forward to that in spades with Carbon Credits!!!
I agree , let’s go to war against these socialist elites pretending to be Greenies !!!!
We must DEFEND climate change !!!