Saw this in an article today on different governments and economies. Food for thought. ================================== This gave democratic governments a huge evolutionary advantage: Letting the common man participate in his own government made him more enthusiastic and lowered the cost of compliance. Elites who had to rely only on the grudging cooperation of their distrustful subjects couldn’t compete. Readers will note that slavery went out of style at about the same time democratic governments evolved. And for the same reason. Had mankind developed a greater sense of justice and sympathy towards others? Not likely. What had evolved to a higher level was the economy. It was now cheaper and more efficient to pay laborers than to keep them as slaves. Digging the New Basin Canal in 1830s Louisiana was a good example. Slaves got yellow fever in the swamps and died. Slaves had capital value. A dead slave was a dead loss. So the engineers found a new source of manpower – poor Irishmen willing to work for as little as $1 a day. They died even more readily than the slaves. But nobody cared.
Surprise! The whole walmart workers are being subsidized by the gov't schtick was a fraud. Shocking! Myth Busted: Taxpayers Are Not Subsidizing Wal-Mart's Low Wages http://www.investors.com/politics/e...yers-are-not-subsidizing-wal-marts-low-wages/
Weight loss? Ask Venezuelans... they know all about it. Almost everybody in the whole country is slim and trim.