Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Alan MacHett" <machett AT ibiblio.org>]

Don,

Are you Socialist?  I don't ask to be insulting, because I consider myself
Socialist (NOT Communist ... SOCIAList, as in being a good Human), but you
sure sound Socialist to me:
- you said you pay your employees several times more than yourself
- you said you believe in giving back to the community (charities, the
"working stiffs", etc.)

Given that, it strikes me as odd that you identify with the Republicans. 
The Democrats are just as dyed-in-the-wool Capitalists, but the
Republicans are more readily or widely associated with old-school,
die-hard, all-about-me Capitalism (as you can tell from the comments on
the list, to which you've responded).

To be honest, I'm dumbfounded.  Until reading your emails, I would NEVER
have associated 'Republican' or 'Free Market' with management having lower
salaries than employees or with redistributing profit back to the
community.  Well, I STILL don't associate those things; I think you've
mislabeled yourself.

-Alan

In reference to Don Rua's messages:
-----------------------------------
[1] 07 July:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/internetworkers/2004-July/016279.html

[2] and his latest (16 or 20 July):
> Matus wrote:
>> The sheer magnitude of corporate greed often escapes us, but
>> imagine what could  be accomplished with the resources hoarded
>> by greedy executives.
>
> And growing up in a Free Market system, I always ask myself
> the rebuttal question: "Instead of imagining what could be
> accomplished, and bemoaning the actions of others, what about
> creating the financial wherewithal to do all that good so oft
> talked about? I believe entrepreneurs DO imagine what could be
> accomplished, and back it with action."
>
> And I admit that I don't know the intimate details of many
> "greedy executives", but everyone I've known with some money
> has not hoarded it, but put it to productive and steady use.
> I've seen numerous examples of people making big money in RTP,
> and using it to fund charities left and right, as well as
> putting that money into the hands of  the "working stiffs"
> of the community in a hundred ways. Again, the question for
> me is not whether we should imagine what could be done, but
> when will we start building our own philanthropic powerhouse.
> One of the beauties of the free market is that many good people
> have the opportunity to do great things; as opposed to many
> people having the ability to just do 'okay', we can do 'okay'
> in all sorts of systems. And there's nothing wrong with doing
> 'okay', but I believe my society will be better if the good
> people feel they have a fighting chance to do great things once
> in a while.
>
> Aside - To Michael C's fair response to my big-biz rant:
> Corruption sucks whether in Enron, or with the gangs in east
> L.A., but I don't hear the mantra that "Republicans help the
> corrupt businesses". What I hear is that R-policitians benefit
> 'big-biz', with no descriptor added. It's funny, if a big biz
> with 10 million customers commits fraud, everyone says they
> ripped off 10M; they are evil; they are scum. But if that same
> company doesn't commit fraud, I don't hear anyone say "Hey,
> these guys are serving 10M, being decent, and making life
> better. Go big biz!"
>