@bostonmike ghettos are the clear sign of failed societies , "plagued by poverty and crime".

And since you mentioned Israel the jews were forced to live in them in the late 30's, an era that you might have enjoyed more then the nowadays liberal crap.

Immigration is result of subtle (and no so) stealing on a bigger scale by the western world (including US). Btw I see the Irish flag on your profile. Irish were a big immigration nation in the past due the incredible poverty which is also part of the reasoning behind the modern migrant flows. So how come it was ok to be an immigrant before and it is not so anymore? I see a double standard here.

Life is not easy, fair and we don't get an equal chance but there should be a little difference form the animal kingdom when organizing human societies, don't you think? Or only the strong survive is better?

@Faudel One of the few things Carlin didn't mention: We live in a society where you have to be a comedian to make a career out of telling the truth.

Let's relax !

One again I agree with Bwhitz...I have to laugh at these people who think that society owes people something. I feel very lucky to have been born in the 1960's in an inner-city neighborhood plagued by poverty and crime. We didn't own a car, we often had no hot water in the winter, and we had no money to take the bus, so this meant walking a mile to the T station through the ghetto, looking over our shoulder along the way so brothers didn't gang up on us and attempt to rob/beat us...and we never once claimed society owed us something. We swam in Boston Harbor back in the day when they dumped raw sewage in it, but it was paradise to us because we didn't know anything different..and most people I grew up with are successful in life right now because they began in humble upbringings and learned from day one that you don't get anywhere in life without hard work. The government is not your baby's daddy..Hell, I scrubbed toilets and shoveled mulch after high school to make a living..at 12 years old I had three newspaper routes..I'd wake up at 4am and go to work before school..and when I finally worked my ass off to get on the Boston Police, a minority with a lower score than me on the exam took my seat in order to fill a quota. What kind of message does that send? How does that better a society? It doesn't, it only drags it down to a lower level..that's okay though, I got a third job, rolled with the punches and put myself through medical school...taking out loans that I pay back without crying about it like these Occupiers do. Life is not easy, no one is going to spoon feed you except hopefully your mother. The failure in America is due by and large to the liberal mindset that surfaced in the 1960's and the failure to control immigration...every person who steals from our resources leaves that much less for everyone else, whether it be jobs, healthcare, benefits..don't just blame the government for the mess.

Americans have become a spoiled whiny breed of people who rely on leftist media and historical revisionism to guide them through life...we allow Israel to lead us by our nose, like its servant, into wars and quagmires that we can't get out of...We pay billions of dollars a year to Israel...yes billions and our own people are struggling...we fight Israels wars for them and build brand new infrastructures in foreign countries while our own cities crumble...America is dying because it has been used like a $7 Columbian crack whore for the past 40 years and very few Americans can see this. We have young people who can tell you who was on Dancing With the Stars last week but can't tell you who Thomas Jefferson was.

There have been systems in the past that didn't per se create internal corruption. The corruption you see now is not "natural". It's induced by a loss of moral standards. We always seem to think it's normal to live in Empire, as we all seem to descend from ancient Rome or Britain in the 19th and 20th century. Fact is : of age there have been countless societies that had within them a natural harmony based on mutual respect and sharing. It's only when a certain class of people loses all sense of justice and preys upon the rest that you create an imbalance, which in itself triggers mechanisms of survival in people and brings out the worst in a person's character. But this is not "natural". What is really natural is that humans like calm and lazy living. Look at the French. (You think people in the Philadelphia would reject a life like the French if they had the chance?)

everyone wants 'big brother' now, right?

heck, most of my friends have skype on their iphones and cannot have conversation without a facebook interuption...

the sad truth is that everything has happened... long ago,

99% of u.s. citizens would have a nervous breakdown and go insane if the internet went down tomorrow...

people talk of a 'real' world and 'real' economy, but do we even live OR work in a 'real' world anymore???

The president of USA was elected because of his MYSPACE CAMPAIGN...

The internet bogged down to see MICHAEL JACKSON'S FUNERAL..

We have welcomed and nourished this jauggernaut of a miscontented, undereducated society...

not with greed, but a carnal desire to provide more for our loved ones...

so,

It seems, now, there is nothing to believe in, except your dreams.

But it's worth mentioning that the MOST stable and simple system then is a hereditary monarchy and I doubt many people want that.

I think people do not know that they actually want.
And no, monarchy is not stable system.
But, may be, we are going to dictatorships, as they act best in the case of resources and trade wars.
Of course, if we'll still have some countries with real soverinity.

Power always require connections, money and knowledge. In various proportions. And, of course, it is natural to have more money, more connections and more knowledge if your family already have them.
With rules and system adjustment you can make it harder to get power by families, clans, etc But this makes system less stable and unnatural, so requires constant control as any flaw in it and all will go back to natural way.

Presumably that theory is based on the idea that the people who control everything do so because they're inherently superior -- at least in terms of making money. That's a load of crap if I've ever heard one. Power and wealth get passed from generation to generation via bloodlines and has little to do with merit. A lot of rich people are stupider than Kim Kardashian and don't even have a nice ass to stare at.

It's often been said and I believe it,"...... that if all the wealth (money) in the world was collected and distributed evenly amongst all persons, within 5 years it would be back in the hands of the original persons that held it in the same portions.......

So we're fucked anyway.

@bwhitz

You got all that wrong! Greed is not bringing the progress its always regressing things back even if it seems it goes further.

Let me guess you are one of the lucky ones - you are rich and living in the highly advanced western world that has the right to fuck everybody and everything up, correct? what is next? your are white and you have more rights the the other races...since we are not equal correct?

Now, don't you worry about the redistribution of resources to everyone, it is never going to happen and any similar attempt in the past has failed very badly.

Still, social justice is imperative for a civilized society and by social justice I mean the basic necessities i have listed earlier. Nothing more ,nothing less!

btw, your culture(mine as well) that is the western world is based on some values and greed has a very clean cut meaning within the codes of this culture, without any preaching or religious connotations, here :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

About the consequences:

Exactly your type of thoughts is what brings more trouble, since we never care about the results of our actions and we only thing "locally". I am not saying we should forget about the immediate environment and needs but we should consider the others as well.

Good luck in your greed based progress!

@brianluce "It's cynical to say greed is at root of human nature."

Only if you view greed as a bad thing. I happen to view greed in a positive way. It is the key to evolution and progress. It's just as natural as wanting to protect your offspring and family.

All our lives we've been indoctrinated to have negative responses to these words like "greed" to manufacture easy scapegoats for our anger. But, the elimination of greed is not the answer. We would stop evolving. Better ways of regulating it seem more logical though.

@dtr

"How is it more dangerous if people think about what the consequences are of what they do, how they live, what they buy and eat, etc on the global scale?"

This will just never work. As soon as one person think about what's best for his family or himself, instead of someone they don't even know on the other side of the world, it will fail.

Sure, some people will connect the dots and understand how everything works on a global scale... must most people just don't posses this kind of thinking. And sadly, the people who don't, out-breed the ones who do.

@brianluce "It'll be just big, bloody redestribution of food and resources. xxxxxxxxxxxx"

"That doesn't sound half bad :)"

Yes it does. If we really redistribute ALL resources and food to EVERYONE on the planet (and continually do this)... we would all live for about 10 years and then collectively die.

If you take resources away from creatives, inventors, and innovators... and give to those who aren't, they won't be able to innovate or create any more jobs, medicine, shelter, ect. Not all humans are equal, people need to accept this. We're all randomly pre-disposed to perform certain tasks better than others... some not at all. This is the BASICS of evolution and genetic variation. We're all different, and the universe is constantly searching for the best and most efficient combination of energy organization. Sentience is interesting in the sense that it is actually possible for us to "choose" to stop this process, but it doesn't mean we should.

Now, I do believe that EVERYONE should have an equal opportunity to PROVE themselves worthy of resources, but it is not written ANYWHERE that all people on the planet should equally have access to all resources collectivity. I don't even understand where this idea came from. It's just not logical at all.

There's a big difference between giving everyone opportunity, and just giving everyone everything.