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how can we morally justify taking money from others at gunpoint to make things "fairer"? Perhaps it depends how they got it. If they got it by "unfairly" takin
by EliRivers 8y ago
how can we morally justify taking money from others at gunpoint to make things "fairer"?
Perhaps it depends how they got it. If they got it by "unfairly" taking it from their neighbour at gunpoint, can we morally justify taking it from them at gunpoint - perhaps in order to return it to that neighbour? If that seems like a fair action, if we can justify that, then the principle is established that sometimes it is morally justified, and we then need "only" identify those qualifying situations.
- mises 8y ago> If the got it by "unfairly" taking it from their neighbor at gunpoint, can we morally justify taking it from them at gunpoint - perhaps in order to return it to that neighbor? We call those people robbers and do just that. Any one who takes money at gunpoint is such. I'm not sure if you were trying to make a different point, but we're pretty good at arresting violent criminals and punishing them.
- EliRivers 8y agoThe point I made is that sometimes it is morally correct to take things from a person at gunpoint, in the name of fairness. You suggested that it was morally unjustifiable to ever do so ("how can we morally justify taking money from others at gunpoint to make things "fairer"?") I suggest, and you appear to agree, that sometimes it IS morally justifed to do so. The principle established, with both of us agreeing that sometimes it is morally justified to forcefully redistribute wealth, now it only falls to us to decide when we should do this forceful redistribution of wealth.