Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!STDC.JHUAPL.EDU!jwm
From: jwm@STDC.JHUAPL.EDU (Jim Meritt (381-3551))
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: life, the universe, and progress
Message-ID: <9004121323.AA13770@stdc.jhuapl.edu>
Date: 12 Apr 90 13:23:17 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 28

>> EVERYONE on this list has access to more raw power, more information,
>> better food, better housing, more comfort,....  than any of the Roman
>> emperors.  
>
>	Absolutely true. However, one has to question to what extent all of
>these benefit us. e.g. our "better food" and more comfort have led to a
>lifestyle that is distinctly unhealthy- witness the prominence of heart
>disease and stress symptoms that are incurred in earning these things.

Check expected lifespans now and five hundred years ago and your question
will be answered.

>	Furthermore, there is no doubt that the resources that support these
>things are taken from the third world at ripoff prices. 

An obviously false statement.  Not if it happens or not, but that there
is doubt.  Since I have seen people disagree with your statement, there
exists doubt.  Perhaps you mean YOU do not doubt?

>	I'm not suggesting a cataclysmic end to this situation, but there is
>no doubt that the hugely wasteful techological lifestyle that we lead in the
>West has to be moderated.

You seem to love saying "no doubt" as though it lends truth to your statements.
A shame it doesn't.

Jim