Re: Who are the richest men in world history?

From: Johnny Marcos (johnny5_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/04/04 

Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 03:31:15 GMT

Uncle Al <UncleAl0@hate.spam.net> wrote in
news:40E7406E.7C94C12F@hate.spam.net:

> real world is in the technical literature and the mathematics. How
> many equations are in Kurzweil's book?

You seemed like such a dumb idiot I thought I had to start with
something easy for your little offensive pin head of a brain. But now
you have shown me you are a bigger *** than anyone else here - what
a great way to use your mind - the wasteland of offensive garbage that
it is.

> The code rewrites itself
> on the fly and evolves; the hardware rewires itself on the fly and
> evolves. That's how your brain does it,

That is not how it will come to be - you are full of *** - it will be
programmed with it's thoughts - they will not EVOLVE and the code will
not rewrite itself and the hardware will not rewire itself. Do some
research on depth and breadth based algorithms. We will not require a
grown evolving algorithm to pass the turing test.

http://www.ai.mit.edu/research/publications/browse/2004browse.shtml

> deafness - the brain starts pathologically talking to itself to fill
> the sensory void.

What a bunch of ***. You have never worked with a lot of deaf/mutes or
blind people have you? Try reading the DSM IV and then get back to me
on pathologies.

http://www.psychologynet.org/dsm.html

> If the "Club of Rome" were right we'd all already be dead - and they

Thankfully you are here slinging childish insults instead of doing
something useful.

> exceeded planetary human memory capacity in the mid-1960s. How may
> TiVos are required to achieve 1100 on an SAT? Walkmen? iPods?

High end tivos will never evolve into higher intelligences - the first
AI's will be programmed - not evolve with genetic algorithms or rewiring
hardware - go read some more.

>> lying about it - so thier war machine is growing faster than thier
>> general economy.
>
> News is propaganda. News was propanganda when Hearst was around.

C-span isn't your typical "news" channel - you do know what it is don't
you?

www.cspan.org

> China has no Welfare, Medicare, or Social Security. Social activism
> is 60% of the US annual budget.

Where is your grandmother??

 You wouldn't need Welfare, Medicare,
> or Social Security if we didn't have them.

Where are your parents and grandparents so I can go TERMINATE them?

 We the productive would
> all be wealthy beyond our dreams because we would not be paying 35%
> Federal plus 17% SS (you and your employer) off the top of our
> incomes. You've already lost half of everything you've earned when

Bryan Singer is making a new movie of Logan's Run for the assholes like
you. SANDMAN TERMINATE that runner! Hitler Jr.

> the alarm clock rings in the morning, you fool.

Yes child, give in to your hate - turn to the darkside and soon you will
be complete.

  In the end you might
> keep about 25% of your income, at most. Everything else hacked off or
> shaved off is inefficiently squandered by government at every level.

You maintain all the roads you drive don't you? You maintain all the
pipes coming into your house delivering water? You are what is wrong
with this country you ungrateful hypocrite.

> *** the poor.

I agree - where is your mother and grandmother so I can TERMINATE thier
useless stinky old asses?

> *** genetic, developmental, and behavioral trash;

You do know Alan Turing was gay? John Nash? But you got all your
knowledge on your own didn't you Hitler? You were conceived of
immaculate conception and performed every scientific proof on your own
time with your own resources - Newton stood on the shoulders of giants -
but you are above them all - you make me want to puke,

> reproductive warriors, hind gut fermenters, drug addicts,
> Enviro-whiner Luddites; the stupid, the pathetic, and the Officially
> Sad.

Why did you just insult yourself?

> Project Head start has nearly the same annual funding as the entire
> National Science Foundation - and the War ond Drugs is more than twice
> as large as both of them together. A chipmunk hoarding acorns does

You are just a squirrel in this world trying to get a nut - you sound
like a nutcase - what was it you said about being left alone too long
causing pathologies - you need to get out Hitler.

> Inflation will explode with the usual time
> lag, accompanied by an explosion of the Prime Rate.

Well the poor will be took care of then won't they Hitler? Starving to
death when they can't buy an apple.

 It's going down
> the toilet as with the Carter administration paying for Vietnam.
> Uncle Al has thought ahead about dealing with subsequent social unrest
> - guns and ammo.

You have the personal arsenal to fight them freedom fighter? Or is your
insulting mouth the only ammo you got?

European demographics (no birthrate and nearly
> everybody elderly by 2030),

It's not my fault, I tried to get all the exchange students from europe
to lay down and make some love - they were liberated - children was NOT
their future. They had too much hate like you hitler - no more love.

> population pressures vs. war, and

The children are our future - but I met too many women that are filled
with offensive agression and hate like you - how many kids do you have?

> subsidized reproduction of the Third World.

They know children are our future - if they didn't have the babies you
might have to get off your ass and go pick some crops.

> China and India will be virulent aggressors trading surplus bodies for
> land.

Not as long as we got you on the battlefield hitler - you will make sure
us amerikans win the war won't you?

> The rest of mainland Asia is already dead.

I tried to lay a girl from malaysia last week - she looked very healthy.

> Europe is already
> dead. Africa is dead (and good riddance).

Indeed Hitler - good riddance - where is your mother and grandmother - I
need to fix my tax problems.

  North America has imported
> reproductive immigrants to shore up its economy of mandated charity -

I didn't see you out in the orange groves hitler.

> but likely as not they will be reproductive warriors instead.
> Mexicans in America will rule all in one more generation, and then
> they will hunt blacks.

The children are our future.

> If the First World has not expanded and migrated to other star systems
> by 2050,

That does it, I now know you are insane - manned spaceflight is never
going to happen in a meaningful way - put down the mission to mars and
go do some more programming so that we can start sending AI's into the
great void V'ger.

> planet Earth will fall as Rome fell, and with no hope of
> recovery. Ever.

Wasn't Khan a little hitler like you?

> The easy resources are gone, the Third World burden
> is insurmountable.

The children are our future. With time and smart kids we will more
directly harness the energies of the sun - unlimited units of energy.

> What remains cannot be obtained without high
> technology.

The children, they are our future.

> It will be a planet of cities being mined for rebar
> inside concrete to make crude knives. In case you haven't noticed,
> the meek are inheriting the Earth and Hell with it.

Russia has thieves stealing the electrical wire - but they are not mass
murdering thier old hitler.

> The First World
> isn't going anywhere, having determinedly committed suicide by its own
> hand.

I tried to get all those girls in high school and college pregnant, I
didn't sell out my natural evolutionary urges - don't blame me.

> The alternative is to slaughter our parasitic poor and elderly,

Yes Sandman TERMINATE the runners - anyone over 21 - how old are you?
Where is your mom and grandmom - I need to fix my tax burden.

> abandon the Third World to Malthusian contraction, and start making
> rational decisions about investing in the future we want instead of

Why leave them to contract - they might get a suitcase bomb and blow you
up - let's go drop some nukes on them - nuetron bombs so we don't hurt
any technology they MIGHT have stolen from us.

> the future we loathe. A modest first step is to require high school
> graduates to demonstrably read, write, and do simple sums.

You can't teach a child anything while he is learning hate from assholes
like you.

> After you have fallen out of a plane it is to late to speculate about
> parachutes.

If you have your portable nano factory with you - you can build one on
the way down - it's never too late - the children are our future.

> My statement isn't overwhelmingly obvious to you?

Your hate and insults are so distasteful it has been a real chore
getting through it - I guess it tired me out.

  The Romans
> discovered near nothing over more than 1000 years.

Nothing? You need to take a refresher in world history - a lot came
from them in so many avenues.

> were doomed. Imagine the wealth, power, extent, and grandeure that
> was Rome all being overturned by barbarian smelly gits on horses who

War and big government to wage war is what killed Rome - that violence
you advocate is what destroyed that empire.

The tax burden on roman citizens was increased to the point where they
grew thier army based on the exact maximum tariff they could extract
from every taxpayer - war and violence shut down trade routes - killed
private economy and destroyed free trade.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-7.html

The long years of war, however, had taken a heavy toll on the Roman
economy. Steep taxes and requisitions of supplies by the army, as well
as rampant inflation and the closing of trade routes, severely depressed
economic growth. Above all, businessmen and traders craved peace and
stability in order to rebuild their wealth.

Peace brought a revival of trade and commerce, further encouraged by
Roman investments in good roads and harbors. Except for modest customs
duties (estimated at 5 percent), free trade ruled throughout the Empire.
It was, in Michael Rostovtzeff's words, a period of "almost complete
freedom for trade and of splendid opportunities for private initiative"

Rome's pro-growth policies, including the creation of a large common
market encompassing the entire Mediterranean, a stable currency, and
moderate taxes, had a positive impact on trade. Keith Hopkins finds
empirical support for this proposition by noting the sharp increase in
the number of known shipwrecks dating from the late Republic and early
Empire as compared to earlier periods (Hopkins 1980: 105-06). The
increase in trade led to an increase in shipping, thus increasing the
likelihood that any surviving wrecks would date from this period.
Rostovtzeff (1957: 172) indicates that "commerce, and especially foreign
and inter-provincial maritime commerce, provided the main sources of
wealth in the Roman Empire."

During the early Empire revenues were so abundant that the state was
able to undertake a massive public works program. Augustus repaired all
the roads of Italy and Rome, restored the temples and built many new
ones, and built many aqueducts, baths and other public buildings.
Tiberius, however, cut back on the building program and hoarded large
sums of cash. This led to a financial crisis in 33 A.D. in which there
was a severe shortage of money. This shortage may have been triggered by
a usury law which had not been applied for some years but was again
enforced by the courts at this time (Frank 1935). The shortage of money
and the curtailment of state expenditures led to a sharp downturn in
economic activity which was only relieved when the state made large
loans at zero interest in order to provide liquidity

At first, the government could raise additional revenue from the sale of
state property. Later, more unscrupulous emperors like Domitian (81-96
A.D.) would use trumped-up charges to confiscate the assets of the
wealthy. They would also invent excuses to demand tribute from the
provinces and the wealthy. Such tribute, called the aurum corinarium,
was nominally voluntary and paid in gold to commemorate special
occasions, such as the accession of a new emperor or a great military
victory. Caracalla (198-217 A.D.) often reported such dubious
"victories" as a way of raising revenue. Rostovtzeff (1957: 417) calls
these levies "pure robbery."

Although taxes on ordinary Romans were not raised, citizenship was
greatly expanded in order to bring more people into the tax net. Taxes
on the wealthy, however, were sharply increased, especially those on
inheritances and manumissions (freeing of slaves).

Though every measure of injustice and extortion had been adopted, which
could collect the property of the subject into the coffers of the
prince; the rapaciousness of Commodus had been so very inadequate to his
extravagance, that, upon his death, no more than eight thousand pounds
were found in the exhausted treasury, to defray the current expenses of
government, and to discharge the pressing demand of a liberal donative,
which the new emperor had been obliged to promise to the Praetorian
guards. Yet under these distressed circumstances, Pertinax had the
generous firmness to remit all the oppressive taxes invented by
Commodus, and to cancel all the unjust claims of the treasury; declaring
in a decree to the senate, "that he was better satisfied to administer a
poor republic with innocence, than to acquire riches by the ways of
tyranny and dishonor."

Unfortunately, Pertinax was an exception. Most emperors continued the
policies of debasement and increasingly heavy taxes, levied mainly on
the wealthy. The war against wealth was not simply due to purely fiscal
requirements, but was also part of a conscious policy of exterminating
the Senatorial class, which had ruled Rome since ancient times, in order
to eliminate any potential rivals to the emperor. Increasingly, emperors
came to believe that the army was the sole source of power and they
concentrated their efforts on sustaining the army at all cost.

At this point, in the third century A.D., the money economy completely
broke down. Yet the military demands of the state remained high. Rome's
borders were under continual pressure from Germanic tribes in the North
and from the Persians in the East. Moreover, it was now explicitly
understood by everyone that the emperor's power and position depended
entirely on the support of the army. Thus, the army's needs required
satisfaction above all else, regardless of the consequences to the
private economy

With the collapse of the money economy, the normal system of taxation
also broke down. This forced the state to directly appropriate whatever
resources it needed wherever they could be found. Food and cattle, for
example, were requisitioned directly from farmers. Other producers were
similarly liable for whatever the army might need. The result, of
course, was chaos, dubbed "permanent terrorism" by Rostovtzeff (1957:
449). Eventually, the state was forced to compel individuals to continue
working and producing.

The result was a system in which individuals were forced to work at
their given place of employment and remain in the same occupation, with
little freedom to move or change jobs. Farmers were tied to the land, as
were their children, and similar demands were made on all other workers,
producers, and artisans as well. Even soldiers were required to remain
soldiers for life, and their sons compelled to follow them. The
remaining members of the upper classes were pressed into providing
municipal services, such as tax collection, without pay. And should tax
collections fall short of the state's demands, they were required to
make up the difference themselves. This led to further efforts to hide
whatever wealth remained in the Empire, especially among those who still
found ways of becoming rich. Ordinarily, they would have celebrated
their new-found wealth; now they made every effort to appear as poor as
everyone else, lest they become responsible for providing municipal
services out of their own pocket.

The steady encroachment of the state into the intimate workings of the
economy also eroded growth. The result was increasing feudalization of
the economy and a total breakdown of the division of labor. People fled
to the countryside and took up subsistence farming or attached
themselves to the estates of the wealthy, which operated as much as
possible as closed systems, providing for all their own needs and not
engaging in trade at all. Meanwhile, much land was abandoned and
remained fallow or fell into the hands of the state, whose mismanagement
generally led to a decline in production.

Careful calculations were made of precisely how much grain, cloth, oil,
weapons or other goods were necessary to sustain a single Roman soldier.
Thus, working backwards from the state's military requirements, a
calculation was made for the total amount of goods and services the
state would need in a given year. On the other side of the coin, it was
also necessary to calculate what the taxpayers were able to provide in
terms of the necessary goods and services. This required a massive
census, not only of people but of resources, especially cultivated land.
Land was graded according to its productivity. As Lactantius (1984: 37)
put it, "Fields were measured out clod by clod, vines and trees were
counted, every kind of animal was registered, and note taken of every
member of the population."

Taxable capacity was measured in terms of the caput, which stood for a
single man, his family, his land and what they could produce. [12] The
state's needs were measured in terms of the annona, which represented
the cost of maintaining a single soldier for a year. With these two
measures calculated in precision, it was now possible to have a real
budget and tax system based entirely on actual goods and services.
Assessments were made and resources collected, transported and stored
for state use.

Although an army on the move might still requisition goods or services
when needed, the overall result of Diocletian's reform was generally
positive. Taxpayers at least knew in advance what they were required to
pay, rather than suffer from ad hoc confiscations. Also, the tax burden
was spread more widely, instead of simply falling on the unlucky, thus
lowering the burden for many Romans. At the same time, with the improved
availability of resources, the state could now better plan and conduct
its military operations.

> had invented stirrups and recurved bows while Yahweh look down at
> newly compassionate Christian Rome and did nothing - as a test of
> faith.

If Rome had turned those barbarians into TRADE PARTNERS instead of
growing the WAR MACHINE - you might be hurling childish insults in latin
instead of english.

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