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Joan, <br>
<br>
Thanks for refreshing my memory on the plot and character development.
There's just some <b>major problems</b> with your analogy i.e.
"(involuntary) corporate profit-sharing scheme".<br>
<br>
A) There were no "corporations" in 12th century England or private
property for that matter. All land was owned by the King and
franchised, if you will, to members of the realm (Dukes, Barons, Lords,
etc.),
who "owned" no real property (real estate) either. The land's
productive proceeds, minus an allowance for a piggishly lavish
lifestyle, were
ultimately due to the monarch. Accordingly, all business was owned buy
the state. We actually have some holdover to that construct in Common
Law called "escheatability" where one's estate is remanded to the
government if one has no heirs upon taking the "big dirt nap."<br>
<br>
B) Historically, it was not just Prince John who placed an unfair
burden of taxation on the working stiffs, but King Richard as well. In
fact, the war in Normandy put such a financial burden on the crown that
a general protest by the nobility and serfdom alike caused the birth of
the Magna Carta, which provided for private property and then
some, in thirteen short years after the death of King Richard. This,
the first major step towards liberal democracy in England. <br>
<br>
C) If, in fact, we make allowances for your assertion that money was
returned to "ownership of the company by those who built the company",
in contemporary terms, you entirely discount for ownership's risk of
capital - which is no inconsequential building block of any
enterprise. Today, stealing from "Archer Daniels Midlands, McDonalds,
and Dell Computer moguls" would be stealing from the likes of the
millions of citizens who have a vested interest in things like the
California Public Employees Retirement System, etc. That is not to say
that modern corporate chiefs earn their egregious salaries, but that is
primarily caused by a lack of accountability created, in large part, by
tax
incentives (now there's an oxymoron for ya) that drive money to
institutional money managers thereby
removing voting privileges of the actual "owners." But I've not the
time
nor the inclination to begin that discussion in this writing.<br>
<br>
So, in fact, Robin was repatriating taxes, not ownership, as stealing
from any nobility was actually taking from the government. Taxes, I
might add, that stuffed the ruling class to obese proportions like the
retirement benefits that congress has voted for themselves in the
current era. (John Kerry wants to give us congress's health care
system, I'm hoping he'll give us his retirement plan - well except for
the ketchup loot from his beaudacious sugar mama of course.)<br>
<br>
Thinking about my little dear one. I will remain ever vigilant Joan,
but I
worry much more about really hard "street literature", full of
impurities and historical reconstruction, like Katrina Vanden Houvel at
The Nation, Cornell West, and the really scary ghost of Stalin; Noam
Chomsky (hey, anybody who ever endorsed Pol Pot qualifies as "really
scary.") <br>
<br>
I too have l<b>ittle use for the modern GOP</b>, but I've <b>equally
"little use"
for Democrats</b>. Their party platform (with notable dessenters like
Barney
Frank) has an official position against gay marriage ironically via
federalism and civil unions <b>-</b> endorses drug interdiction
programs that continue to fail
($20 Billion alone to Columbia plus another $30 billion hidden in the
Defense budget <b>-</b> we can buy a sh_t load of ketchup with that
dough) <b>-</b> the insanity of not coming to grips that Social
Security will ultimately have to be means tested at a minimum, lest we
hand to our heirs a stinking pile of rotting economic fecal matter that
they won't even be able to grow mushrooms in<b> -</b> the insane
changes at the FDA made by Clinton that allows big pahrama to extend
patents ad nausium with minor changes in drug formulary thereby
nullifying an otherwise reasonable system of patent protection <b>-</b>
the ridiculous entitlement of Medicare that sets price controls thereby
forcing higher prices and screwing the boots off the uninsured, the
working poor and the self-employed <b>-</b> the whole damn notion of
"hate crimes" legislation where the arbiters of thought control will be
determined by a tyranny of the majority <b>-</b> the obnoxious push
for federalizing the payroll of incompetent cretins who perform
proctological exams in search of box cutters every time someone gets on
an airplane (but I have a serious problem with that entire bi-partisan
body of law)<b> -</b> the continuous insufferable conclusion that the
law is not just for protecting me from getting screwed but from being
stupid as well (I contend that being stupid is a constitutional right
and is the underlayment of the entire Bill of Rights) <b>-</b> and all
the rest of the twaddle that implies that I don't know whether to sh_t
or go blind. And this is just the beginning. <br>
<br>
In fairness, I have an equally long list for the GOP, but I'm thinking
you're probably willing to wait for that. I say, as did the the Queen
of Hearts, "off with their heads!" I'm ecumenical that way.<br>
<br>
Oops, I got a little screedy there. Must be the I.V. bee venom.<br>
<br>
Sorry, I'll return to my warm (but smarmy) self after the venom wears
off. Didn't mean to offend. Better call my psychiatrist, I've
forgotten my mantra...<br>
<br>
Dave Budge<br>
<br>
<br>
Joan Opyr wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="midBAY10-DAV18D544FB00AC1C7C82CB0EC5770@phx.gbl">
<div>Dave writes:</div>
<div> </div>
<div>"As for Robin Hood, the way I recall the story, Robin was
compelled to retrieve money that had been taken by the tyrannical King
through an unfair scheme of taxing the peasants. Fair Hood was not
'stealing from the rich and giving to the poor' but providing a <b>significant
tax rebate</b>. Seems pretty libertarian to me."</div>
<div> </div>
<div>This is <strong>almost</strong> the plot, Dave. In
fact, Prince John (would-be usurper of King Richard the Lionheart's
throne) was collecting taxes from the poor to pay for an
unpopular foreign war. He was not -- as he should have been -- mugging
the rich, i.e., the land-grabbing Norman barons, the Sheriff of
Nottingham, and Sir Hally Burton, war-monger to the stars. No
-- Prince John was screwing the poor serfs in order to foster
popularity among the barons so that he could hang onto Richard's throne
when the true king returned (if he returned) from the Crusades. He was
obliged to do this because he didn't have a Republican-packed Supreme
Court on which to rely.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Rather than providing "a significant tax rebate" to the serfs
(who, today, might be called the working class), Robin Hood took the
Pretty Boy Floyd route. He "reclaimed" and "redistributed" wealth from
the Archer Daniels Midlands, McDonalds, and Dell Computer moguls of his
day, and gave it to the workers. You might say that Robin
Hood introduced the first (involuntary) corporate profit-sharing
scheme: ownership of the company by those who built the company. There
is, perhaps, something libertarian with a small "l" about that, but
there is nothing conservative with a big "GOP" about it.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>[BTW, as my partner-in-crime Brother Carl will attest, I have a
libertarian streak myself. It manifests itself not in aversion to
taxes -- except for those used to pay for hopeless foreign excursions,
so-called faith-based initiatives, and to foster the Bush definition of
marriage -- but in a deep and abiding desire to be left the hell
alone. That's why I moved to Idaho. I can live with small "l"
libertarians; it's nosy Baptist hypocrite right-wing bedroom police
self-righteous puritanical fundamentalist conservatives who get on my
t-ts. But then you probably already knew that.]</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Dave continues: <br>
<br>
"I am fascinated by your notion of 'gateway literature' though. This
might lead to really dodgy stuff like Adam Smith's <u>The Wealth of
Nations</u>, or perhaps even (gasp!) Ayn Rand. What's next? I can see
it now, having to put my poor dear into a twelve-step program to
address her adrenaline addiction from reading post-modern economic
philosophy. As my jewish friends would say 'Oy, what a shandre!'"</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Listen, Dave, I know your daughter is young, but you must sit
her down immediately and have a serious talk with her about the dangers
of sniffing Ayn Rand. One hit on the <strong>Fountainhead</strong>
bong is all it takes for a good kid to go Natural Law. Soon, she'll be
shooting up <strong>Atlas Shrugged</strong>, and then what? Milton
Friedman tracks all up and down her arms. The Wall Street Journal's
editorial page, injected between her toes. And then . . . The National
Review. That one goes up in the eyelids. Don't be meshuggeneh,
Dave -- just say no.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Parents: the anti-drug. Except that, in fact, we are like
Halcion.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</div>
<div> </div>
<div>PS: I do hope you're not reading that child <strong>The
Miller's Tale</strong>. Or, worse yet, The Prioress's. For heaven's
sake, start her out with something uplifting like <strong>The Pearl </strong>or
John Bunyon's <strong>Pilgrim's Progress</strong>. Yes, of course,
she'll be bored to tears, but isn't the idea of bed-time reading to put
the child to sleep? BTW, she's not going to give a hoot about the
cuckolding in the Miller's Tale -- she's going to be mesmerized by
Nicolas' letting "flee a fart." God knows I was, and I was sixteen
when I first read it. Old enough not to be laughing at farts. Then
again, I'm 38 now and still laughing, so . . .</div>
<div> </div>
<div>PPS: Is it possible that you're confusing Robin Hood with Monty
Python's Dennis Moore?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>"He robs from the poor,</div>
<div>And gives to the rich.</div>
<div>Dennis Moore,</div>
<div>Dennis Moore,</div>
<div>Stupid b-tch." </div>
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