Author Topic: On a Plate (cartoon)  (Read 1373 times)

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Xavier_Onassis

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"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: On a Plate (cartoon)
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2015, 01:41:26 AM »
I can see how that works, but who would be helped by making us all put up with Paula's situation?

I imagine that Archimedes may have been from a privileged family. Lucky enough to be able to indulge in deep learning and plenty of time spent on study and research.

If Archimedes had been spending more time in farming or fishing he might not have been able to develop his incredible insight into the nature of things.

Aren't we all lucky that the discoveries of Archimedes happened when they did and not a lot later?

On the other hand Einstein got a job as a clerk , and did his musing over the nature of matter and energy in-between processing patent applications.

The ratio of food producing personnel to intellectual workers has been changing over the course of history, right now only two percent of us are farmers and you have to struggle against competition to become a farmer.

I wonder if Archimedes could have envisioned an economic situation in which clerks outnumbered    harvesters and planters?

Maybe he could , he was pretty sharp , and a lot of his work helped to bring it about.

Plane

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Xavier_Onassis

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Re: On a Plate (cartoon)
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2015, 10:54:06 AM »
The point is that privileged people tend to think that they are where they are because of their amazing intelligence and clever minds, when luck and dozens of other factors are really much of the reason for their success. They won what Warren Buffett calls "The Ovarian Lottery", as he did. And this goes far beyond just rich parents.

Eventually many people with just one talent, like selling stuff, putting  a ball through a hoop or hitting a ball with a stick, come to think that they are actually WORTH what they are paid to do, and entitled to keep it all, because, they think, all the rest of the people are just talentless drudges and unworthy.

Ronald Reagan was clearly lucky to have been born precisely when broadcasting baseball on the radio became a part of society. He developed his speaking skills and was luckily the right height and had the right look to make it as an actor. Then GE was convicted with price fixing and some of the execs were actually sent to prison. GE desperately needed someone to improve their shitty image, like "The Old Ranger", and he learned how to give The Speech. He did not write The Speech, GE wrote it, but he gave it so many many times he actually came to believe his own fetid bullshit. 

Had he been born 20 years earlier or later, he would perhaps made it to be president of his local Lion's Club.  He was just in precisely the right place at the right time.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: On a Plate (cartoon)
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2015, 08:44:35 PM »
  Reagan?
  Ronald Reagan was not born rich , he was born highly intelligent and very talented.

   Frankly I would rather be gifted with talent and intelligence than easy money.

    Intelligence and talent might gather money but money without intelligent management is liable to dissipate.

     Also talent and intelligence are enjoyable even in the absence of money.

     I acknowledge that wealth is a strong advantage  in getting things done and in gathering education and in finding opportunities.

   That is about the size of it, if we also add that the average American is in absolute terms quite wealthy in comparison to most earlier Americans and most of the rest of the world for all time.

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: On a Plate (cartoon)
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2015, 09:48:52 PM »
Reagan was the luckiest man ever to be president. But he thought that everyone was equally lucky.
Perhaps if he had suffered FDR's polio, he would have been a better president. As it was he was the best actor this country has ever produced.

FDR was born rich and of a great family, but he was capable of seeing reality.

The fact is that a great leader needs to be able to see things from the standpoint of other citizens.

Romney demonstrated that this was not his thing when he said "A Cadillac? Yes, I think we own one of those..."
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."