>>Didn't really answer much did it? Capitalism, although not perfect - is the best system we have. Just take a look at what happened to Russia when they tried to live without it. The problem without it is that people, by nature, always want more. They want to make more and be able to provide more and nicer things to their families. If we all lived in fantasy land like Rick wants I guess all people would suddenly have no desires and no ambition...just be all lovey dovery. Instead you'd just have some unqualified boneheads filling potholes in the middle of the highway incorrectly and killing people as a result.
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>I do not think that what you said is true. There are countless of examples of people doing great things with little or no economic rewards, or people that rejects better income to help others. Sorry but I do not buy he idea that money is the force behind progress or success or whatever you call Capitalism (I will just call it a pyramid scheme, but that is just me :)
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>I think a good example is Tesla vs. Edison, the first one with all the great ideas that were way ahead his time, and the latter just pushing for his crappy ideas for the sole purpose of making money, very capitalistic, and wrong.

Just to be clear, I was not touting the marvels of capitalism. And your point is well taken that great things have been done with little money. What I meant was I don't think it's right that someone should create something and then someone else can take their work just as though they had done it themselves. As you say yourself in the example of Tesla and Edison. If that were the case we wouldn't have copyrights and patents. That's our system. Rick isn't going to change it with his utopian ideas.

My "Oh boy" comment was in response to Rick changing the subject to exhorting me to go out and volunteer, do good works for mankind, and so on. That came out of left field and had nothing to do with the discussion.