4 ms·

Should I just chant this as I drive past the food banks at the people in line?

by wonderwonder 8y ago

fastball 8y ago
Places where people get free food This is somehow a problem Hmm.
- wonderwonder 8y ago
  Is that... is that really your argument? That everything is fine because these people in line at the food bank are able to get free food so that their children don't starve to death? So we can ignore the massive wealth disparity and the vast number of people living in poverty because we don't force them to die of hunger. That's very magnanimous of you. Imagine what they could accomplish with both free food and knowledge of your mantra.
  - fastball 8y ago
    I was responding to your complete lack of an argument ("FOOD BANKS EXIST!?!!") in turn. Seems like the best way to respond to people who interject completely useless comments into conversations. If you want to have an actual discussion we can, but I doubt it will be productive, as it is already very clear that you either lack the critical reasoning skills to recognise the difference between wealth disparity and poverty, or you are deliberately obfuscating the difference and are arguing in bad faith. Either way, it's a problem. But I'll give it a go anyway: wealth disparity has no impact on poverty levels. There is no causal relationship between the two things. Nobody is dying of hunger because Jeff Bezos is a billionaire instead of a millionaire. Nobody is struggling to take care of their kids because your neighbor has three cars when you only have one. In fact, in recent decades the relationship between wealth inequality and poverty reduction has been positively correlated. Wealth is not a zero sum game. Phrased another way: economic productivity is greater than the sum of its parts.
    - mdorazio 8y ago
      Ad hominem attacks are an extremely poor choice for comments and have no place on this site.
      - fastball 8y ago
        Misusing the phrase "ad hominem" is not constructive and has no place on this site.
    - maxxxxx 8y ago
      Your first two paragraphs should get an award for most arrogant comment in quite a while.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - fastball 8y ago
        How do you figure?
        maxxxxx 8y ago
        You basically told the previous poster that he is an idiot. That's arrogance in my view especially since you are only stating things with nothing to back them up or any coherent thought besides that you are right and everyone else is stupid and not even worth discussing with.
        fastball 8y ago
        The idea that two different things are in fact different does not require "back up". Wealth inequality and poverty are not interchangeable concepts, but wonderwonder was treating them like they were by appealing to everyone's innate sense that poverty is bad and then conflating that with wealth inequality. This isn't up for debate. The two things are, by definition, not the same. You may think they are related, but that burden is wonderwonder's (and perhaps yours) to prove, not mine. Two separate concepts are not correlated, causal, or interchangeable until they have been shown to be. Not the other way 'round. I don't think everyone else is stupid. But people that conflate those two things are either missing something or doing it deliberately (knowing full well they are wrong). Telling someone this is not arrogance, and my comment was perfectly coherent to a great many people if upvotes are any indication. If you want an example of incoherence, look no further than the comment which talked about "driving past food banks" as if that was some sort of "gotcha" about wealth inequality. I think it was lost on wonderwonder that food banks themselves are a great example of wealth not being a zero sum game.

Should I just chant this as I drive past the food banks at the people in line?

fastball 8y ago

Places where people get free food This is somehow a problem Hmm.

wonderwonder 8y ago
Is that... is that really your argument? That everything is fine because these people in line at the food bank are able to get free food so that their children don't starve to death? So we can ignore the massive wealth disparity and the vast number of people living in poverty because we don't force them to die of hunger. That's very magnanimous of you. Imagine what they could accomplish with both free food and knowledge of your mantra.
- fastball 8y ago
  I was responding to your complete lack of an argument ("FOOD BANKS EXIST!?!!") in turn. Seems like the best way to respond to people who interject completely useless comments into conversations. If you want to have an actual discussion we can, but I doubt it will be productive, as it is already very clear that you either lack the critical reasoning skills to recognise the difference between wealth disparity and poverty, or you are deliberately obfuscating the difference and are arguing in bad faith. Either way, it's a problem. But I'll give it a go anyway: wealth disparity has no impact on poverty levels. There is no causal relationship between the two things. Nobody is dying of hunger because Jeff Bezos is a billionaire instead of a millionaire. Nobody is struggling to take care of their kids because your neighbor has three cars when you only have one. In fact, in recent decades the relationship between wealth inequality and poverty reduction has been positively correlated. Wealth is not a zero sum game. Phrased another way: economic productivity is greater than the sum of its parts.
  - mdorazio 8y ago
    Ad hominem attacks are an extremely poor choice for comments and have no place on this site.
    - fastball 8y ago
      Misusing the phrase "ad hominem" is not constructive and has no place on this site.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    Your first two paragraphs should get an award for most arrogant comment in quite a while.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - fastball 8y ago
      How do you figure?
      - maxxxxx 8y ago
        You basically told the previous poster that he is an idiot. That's arrogance in my view especially since you are only stating things with nothing to back them up or any coherent thought besides that you are right and everyone else is stupid and not even worth discussing with.
        fastball 8y ago
        The idea that two different things are in fact different does not require "back up". Wealth inequality and poverty are not interchangeable concepts, but wonderwonder was treating them like they were by appealing to everyone's innate sense that poverty is bad and then conflating that with wealth inequality. This isn't up for debate. The two things are, by definition, not the same. You may think they are related, but that burden is wonderwonder's (and perhaps yours) to prove, not mine. Two separate concepts are not correlated, causal, or interchangeable until they have been shown to be. Not the other way 'round. I don't think everyone else is stupid. But people that conflate those two things are either missing something or doing it deliberately (knowing full well they are wrong). Telling someone this is not arrogance, and my comment was perfectly coherent to a great many people if upvotes are any indication. If you want an example of incoherence, look no further than the comment which talked about "driving past food banks" as if that was some sort of "gotcha" about wealth inequality. I think it was lost on wonderwonder that food banks themselves are a great example of wealth not being a zero sum game.