[berntb]

>>Well, it turns out that overworking people and polluting is still bad behaviour.

I usually give this link at this point. http://www.slate.com/id/1918/

Krugman discuss, well, why you are a judging hypocr.. cough, a bit harsh. :-)

Edit: Let me put it this way. A millennia ago, my ancestors made today's Afghanistan look like a cosy and peaceful place. Now, it is a bit different -- a welfare state where there haven't been war for a couple of centuries. Both situations are inside the range of human behaviour/nature. The trick is to organise things so society works and so that it gets better over time. So few ways of doing things really works, so it is a bit funny when you complain about just those, from a moral perspective.

[naner]

I've read this before. I supposed I just have a hard time with the idea that doing harmful things is long-term beneficial.

[berntb]

>>I just have a hard time with the idea that doing harmful things is long-term beneficial.

I come from a protestant culture; we have problems believing that fun things can be beneficial. :-)

Krugman argued -- many of those things aren't harmful, given the situation the local people are in.

Instead of complaining about something that will be fixed automatically given good governance, work for good governance... Another of my standard links:

http://reason.com/archives/2006/03/01/why-poor-countries-are...

(Me? I am doing good by educating activists about the real problems. :-) )