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>Very small children understand and recognize property, since it is a natural right. The toy in my hand is "mine," and when some other kid comes along and takes
by frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago
>Very small children understand and recognize property, since it is a natural right. The toy in my hand is "mine," and when some other kid comes along and takes it, I get upset.
When a very small child in a poor family looks at what is under a wealthy family's Christmas tree he's also going to be upset. Does that make a relatively equal distribution of Christmas presents a natural right?
I see no basis for decrying all coercion and mandating transactions be voluntary yet also overlooking the biggest contributor to coercion: property.
- googletazer 9y agoUpset/uncomfortable - maybe, but at who? The rich family? His own family? Himself? Society? All of those? People on hackernews and in general tend to view "negative" feelings, envy, etc... as generically "bad". These feelings are evolutionary signals from your primal brain that something isn't going right. Its up to you to fix that, however you see fit.
- pishpash 9y agoNot all people feel the same way or get the same primal brain screams. Who decides who's right?
- ballenf 9y agoWhichever side has more hashing power. Err, I mean muscle+weapon power.
- googletazer 9y agoYup, every armed robbery is a brain deciding that it can take stuff by force instead of making/creating/exchanging it.
- frgtpsswrdlame 9y ago>Upset/uncomfortable - maybe, but at who? The rich family? His own family? Himself? Society? All of those? "Upset" wasn't my word choice, I was just re-using what clark said to show the emptiness in using childhood feelings to determine what is and isn't a natural right. I don't actually believe our society should be governed by the feelings of children.
- Daishiman 9y ago> These feelings are evolutionary signals from your primal brain that something isn't going right. Its up to you to fix that, however you see fit. So rape and pillaging it is then.
- googletazer 9y agoI mean those two have pretty clear risks as well. Morality might moderate people's primal feelings but they are even better moderated by understanding opportunity - costs of the actions. Nevertheless, there is nothing inherently "bad" about "negative" feelings. They just tell you something isn't going right and you have to fix it. How you do that - is up to you.