From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Wed Dec 12 2007 - 14:54:41 EST
Jerry, Just for the record, in making the remark I did, I was expressing a wry, grudging wonder at aggregate Dutch financial skill (and the skills of the Chinese and Jews in this area of endeavour) - if you look at the actual labour force participation rates, it is a wonder how such a relatively Dutch small workforce can generate and redistribute so much money, the trading ability as such is impressive. That is all. As regards my views on ethnic questions generally, I have sent you my opinions in more detail off-list. I am of course prepared to debate ethnic questions on-list, but I am more inclined to explore them, rather than debate them. Most ethnic prejudices in my experience are explicable purely in terms of not-knowing, in which case you are better off learning on the basis of social equality, than debating. I am not very interested in moralistic, unctious, quasi-religious or "politically correct" discourses about the subject. I agree that my turn of phrase "could be interpreted" as aggravating to some, and will therefore refrain on-list with these remarks. Jurriaan ----- Original Message ----- From: GERALD LEVY To: adsl675281@tiscali.nl Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 8:35 PM Subject: RE: [off-list] Jurriaan: I was going to send the following to the list but decided to send it to you individually instead. Comradely, Jerry =================================================== Jurriaan: The overwhelming majority of Dutch, Chinese, and Jews are members of the working class. Even if you qualify the statement below with "bourgeoisie", I don't think it's the case that the bourgeoisie from these nations/groups are any more adept at money-making than the bourgeoisie from other nations/groups. In solidarity, Jerry > As far as making money is concerned, the Dutch can slog it out with the Chinese and the Jews for now, in a more egalitarian society.
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