> Yeah, what happens when the workers in the Global South get tired of your
> government stealing from them to make your nice middle class leftist
> lifestyle possible?
>
> What exactly do you do for a living?
C'mon, Chuck, let's not personalize this. If you want to know what I do for a living, I'm a museum curator. In global terms, I am one of the most privileged people on the face of the earth (so are you, and so, probably, is everyone else here--we all have computers, no?), though in terms of US income distribution I'm stuck in the bottom quartile. I left the corporate world for work that is more personally rewarding, more interesting, and more oriented toward public service. I make about a third of what I used to, and have much less job security. It helps if you have no dependents and limited material needs.
I would like for everyone, here in the US and around the world, to have the same privileges that we enjoy--for every mute inglorious Milton to have his or her chance to sing. I don't see that happening in the absence of an intricate, advanced industrial economy, which is what this discussion is really about. How do we get there from here? I'd like to level the world up, not down. I just don't find your prescriptions very convincing, that's all.
Jacob Conrad