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<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Trebuchet MS">I think
the concerns about potentially sizeable donations from those who can easily
afford to make them is fully justified (but isn’t it nice to even be having this
discussion).</FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Trebuchet MS">Sandie
makes the point that we almost certainly wouldn’t weigh the opinions of X more
highly than Y simply because X offers to contribute ten times more than Y. I
think that’s true... for now. But what happens after a couple of years, after
becoming quite used to generous donations from X? Is there not a danger that we
might have started to rely on those donations? Would we still be able then to
treat any possible differences of opinion between X and Y with the same
equanimity? I like to think that I’d be able to but I wouldn’t like to give an
assurance that everyone else could - it certainly isn’t the way the world works
at the moment, where big money totally dominates decision-making.</FONT></P>
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face="Trebuchet MS"> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Trebuchet MS">I think
we should proceed with caution. Just because someone might be loaded doesn’t
mean that they don’t have exactly the same concerns about the planet in general,
and human society in particular, that most of us at LSSC appear to have. History
has thrown up a few such individuals (Robert Owen, George Cadbury) – but the
fact is they’re pretty rare. We would simply need to learn more about any such
person taking an interest in LSSC. After all it’s their values that should
matter to us far more than their bank balance, and providing their values pretty
much resonate with the rest of us, they should be welcomed with open
arms.</FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Trebuchet MS">john</FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>