Re: Definition of "rich"?

nospam <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Peter Bjørn Perlsø wrote:

Then take this: USSR launched Sputnik and Gagarin. They had in the
beginning a big technological advantage in space race. Why USA overpass
them ?

Because the USA had all the scientists that fled from Germany before
World War II?

Then why were the Russian the first ?

Because they were a highly planned economy, and were not slow to waste
their stolen resources on blue-sky research that had no practical
short-term application to common people.

The USA followed suit, and the rest as they say, is history.


BTW, since the USSR were first, doesn't that speak againt your
hypothesis that democracy fosters scientific/engineering advancement?


Never heard of that story, could you point to some more materail on it?

It was on History or Discovery channel. They broadcasted the show about
history of spying betwen US and USSR at least 2 times in last 2 years.

They gave to US embassy a nice wooden carved emblem. The US engineers study
it and gave it green light since there were NO electronics inside. The
"hanging hook" was made of cooper and looked a little strange, but since no
electronics was there nobody was concerned. Later after it was very clear
that they have leaks from that office a new team of engineers went to study
the embassy. They didn't noticed anything inside, but they detected a faint
microwave beam coming from outside on the wall where the emblem was.
Later the scientists, figured out that the "hanging hook" has exactly half
of the wave length of the microwave beam. It vibrate with speech in the room
and it modulated in frequency the signal sent from outside.The modulated
signal was detectable with a very sensitive device located in a nearby
building at a carefully calculated angle from the original beam.

Ha! Cool! :)



I disagree - because a nation changes its form of rule does not
magically make its populace more brilliant.

No more brilliant, but motivated. In the beginning USSR young believed
in the Lenin's propaganda. They believed that it is going to be democracy
and they will live better into the "workers paradise". They were possibly
the best motivated specialists in the world. However, in time the reality
showed. They figured out that are oppressed and that there is just an
oligarchy lying to them and ruling them by fear. They got demotivated.

That, and the fact that the free market for throught and research - and
of course, achievement - was put out of business by a communist
ideaology where no one were allowed to rise over the commoners.


The ONLY reason capitalism was more successfull than the communism
is the democracy.

Successful in what way? Are we still talking in terms of research? China
is not democratic, but is it quickly turning capitalist (even thought
the despotic bastards in charge of the operation deny it). China just
put a man in space a year ago, even. They are slowly becoming a
superpower, and in more than one way.

If the communism would been as claimed in propaganda
and the capitalism killed the democracy and ruled by fear, the world will be
100% different than today.

Well, at least very different...


That is: Democracy and individual motivation are the requirements for a
society to be successfull. Everything else does not count at all.

Democracy is merely a mistaken ideal of freedom.

Freedom is what people should have, not democracy, which is merely
tyranny of the many.

--
regards, Peter Bjørn Perlsø
http://haxor.dk
http://liberterran.org
http://haxor.dk/fanaticism/
.