The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer... but only in relative terms. In absolute terms, we're all getting richer.
It's pretty hard to argue that the lower classes are getting poorer when you compare what we had 50 or 100 years ago with what we have now: our houses are bigger, they have plumbing and electricity, they're filled with God knows how many gadgets and appliances, cars outnumber people, sugary and fatty foods that used to be considered luxuries are eaten in excess even in (or especially in) the lower classes.
We're definitely better off. If the middle classes are suffering it's because their own prosperity meant they never learnt to live within their means.
I think this was probably one of the worst responses you could have given. The email seems to indicate that the guy feels guilty about buying your laptop, and that his offer is an attempt to ease his conscience. Now he's thinking to himself that he tried to set things right but couldn't because you responded by being a jerk.
The second best thing would have been to cooperate and get the files - and I would have suggested this if you needed them - but the best would have been to refuse to cooperate with him on the grounds that you don't want to ease his conscience when you belive him to be guilty.
Too late now, I guess, but that's what I think.
(Apologies if I sound rude or blunt in this comment; I don't have the time to revise/edit it.)
I understand that. I just don't understand why he feels the need to start making these unscientific speculations about whether God does or does exist or whether aliens do or don't exist.
First the existence of aliens and now the existence of God. What totally unscientific speculation is Stephen Hawking going to make next for the media to latch on to?
I'm an Australian living in a town with a pretty high level of immigrants, including a lot of Americans and Canadians, and I can't tell the difference between an American and a Canadian at all. I'm not entirely convinced the difference between a Canadian and an American would be any bigger than the difference between Texans and Californians, for example.
It's pretty hard to argue that the lower classes are getting poorer when you compare what we had 50 or 100 years ago with what we have now: our houses are bigger, they have plumbing and electricity, they're filled with God knows how many gadgets and appliances, cars outnumber people, sugary and fatty foods that used to be considered luxuries are eaten in excess even in (or especially in) the lower classes.
We're definitely better off. If the middle classes are suffering it's because their own prosperity meant they never learnt to live within their means.