re employment was re why not concentrate on child molesters in article apr galileo cc rochester edu as b uhura cc rochester edu tree of schnopia writes wow i hadn t realized how venomous this was getting be careful here the problem isn t the rich but the values and the systems that make the rich rich but the values and systems that make the rich rich all basically amount to freedom of choice in new england in the entire economy was based on the small family farm farm economy households were economically diversified producing not only agricultural goods but also manufactured goods especially cloth many farm women carded spun and or wove producing not only cloth for their own family but also to sell generating extra income but about this time the industrial revolution was underway in england and by the s it had moved to the us in both cases in the form of textile mills these mills could produce cloth far more efficiently and cheaply than people at home the result was that an important source of home income was wiped out and many of these women were compelled by economic circumstance to go to work in these same mills in lowell mass or nashua nh where they worked hour weeks in deafening dangerous conditions living regimented lives and being exposed to cotton dust and infectious dis eases due to the work now people didn t have to buy the cheaper factory made cloth they were free to keep buying the home made variety and support their local economy things are designed in such a way that in order to go with the system and make money everything else we care about goes to shit but sorry for the cliche it takes two to tango the big rich corporations achieved that wealth because we buy their stuff it used to be the case that the business center of a town was also its social center you knew the merchants you did business with or even local kids working behind the counter you would see people on the street whom you knew and you could stop for a chat nowadays local merchants are going out of business and people shop at huge anonymous malls serving regional populations of hundreds of thousands or millions you have no particular relationship with the companies you do business with and feel no particular commitment to them nor they to you major components of what defines a com munity have been destroyed on the other hand the products we buy at these malls are a lot cheaper due to economies of scale and foreign manufacture and they are probably of better or at least more consistent quality i have to constantly remind myself that the goal of human society is not to make money money doesn t make us happy it just prevents certain things making us more unhappy therefore don t shoot the rich shoot the conservatives don t blame the conservatives for this everyone makes their own individual choice and the liberals and the fence sitters are just as guilty of pretending there are no social and cultural consequences to economic choices peter
