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You breathe clean air don't you? It's called "promoting the general welfare" and it's one of the American government's responsibilities as laid out in the Const
by twinkletwinkle 9y ago
You breathe clean air don't you? It's called "promoting the general welfare" and it's one of the American government's responsibilities as laid out in the Constitution.
- muninn_ 9y agoAlthough I largely agree I don't really like the "promoting the general welfare" line of reasoning for justifying things.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y agoThen please stop using the internet. You know, that taxpayer funded military thing opened up to the public to promote the general welfare.
- muninn_ 9y agoOk sure, and maybe I'll also stop using the TSA and funding war. Both easily justified under "promoting the general welfare".
- 3131s 9y agoSeriously, what other metric is better than "promoting the general welfare"? Isn't that exactly what governments should be doing?
- muninn_ 9y agoWell, it's not even a metric, so that's the first issue. Second, I'm not a utilitarian. But the issue with it, for me, lies in the ambiguity of what "general welfare" means. If you have a bunch of people driving cars, building stupid highways might promote the general welfare even though we should build bike paths and sidewalks instead.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoSo, if that is the overall and encompassing reason one does things, what reason are we supposed to use? Should we lie? Should we list all the things that "general welfare" includes? Do you have a more specific term that relays the same meaning? Or any sort of suggestion?
- hinkley 9y agoMy whole life I haven't needed a single intervention by the CDC nor the military, and I haven't used a single road in the American southwest. I think we should get rid of them since I'm not getting anything out of it.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoThis is like saying because you've never needed to have a fire put out, we should get rid of the fire department. Nevermind that they often do things like fire safety, prevention, first aid, and community outreach and other things you are likely to generally benefit from. The same with the CDC. You might not have needed an intervention, but you've probably gained in general from disease prevention efforts, research, education, and so on. The benefits of military are slightly more muddled, though most won't argue to get rid of all of it. You might not use the roads there, but I'm guessing many of the things you consume have used them.
- rosser 9y agoYour comment's parent was sarcasm.