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> but the use value of your tenth car is much lower than having those same ten cars (and thus the same productivity) spread across ten people. But the point is

> but the use value of your tenth car is much lower than having those same ten cars (and thus the same productivity) spread across ten people. But the point is that any (however small) value for the person who earned it is justified, while whatever value it might have for other people is irrelevant, since it's not theirs. In the same way you could argue that buying a car in the first world is immoral because buying it for someone else in the third world would provide them with higher value. Earned wealth is not public wealth, unless we live in communist utopia where nobody earns or owns anything.

JauntyHatAngle 7y ago
Why is it all or nothing? A government can certainly form policies and implement changes that attempt to distribute wealth more equitably. Its kinda 101 stuff. That isn't new, is done all the time to varying degrees, and is many, many times removed from "communist utopia".
LaserToy 7y ago
Well, that is a philosophical question. You could’ve used a bus a saved 1000 kids in Africa or you could’ve bought a car and let them die. Same applies for people in another state or even city. We don’t want to pay for someone’s else cancer treatment. We just don’t think about it and most of us just don’t care. I did care more when I was younger, but rose glasses tend to fall when you grow up. I now leaning towards capitalism when I will treat you as bad as the law allows me and extract as much money is possible as it is a fair game. Welcome to corporate America.
- generalpass 7y ago
  > Well, that is a philosophical question. You could’ve used a bus a saved 1000 kids in Africa or you could’ve bought a car and let them die. Same applies for people in another state or even city. We don’t want to pay for someone’s else cancer treatment. > We just don’t think about it and most of us just don’t care. I did care more when I was younger, but rose glasses tend to fall when you grow up. I now leaning towards capitalism when I will treat you as bad as the law allows me and extract as much money is possible as it is a fair game. > Welcome to corporate America. Why is it that kids in Africa are going to die but not kids in the U.S.? How has such an incredible disparity in wealth come to be? Isn't the incentive structure of private capital ownership a pretty big part in this?
  - LaserToy 7y ago
    I just took kids in Africa as an example of humans who are very far away and struggling. I find it unacceptable when people say that they respect human life, but what they actually respect is a life of their neighbor. If we say that human life has no cost we should be investing in saving more lives over lives of someone who lives close by. And yes, the structure has everything to do with it.
    - generalpass 7y ago
      > I just took kids in Africa as an example of humans who are very far away and struggling. I find it unacceptable when people say that they respect human life, but what they actually respect is a life of their neighbor. If we say that human life has no cost we should be investing in saving more lives over lives of someone who lives close by. > And yes, the structure has everything to do with it. So, why are those humans over there struggling while the humans over here are not? What lead to this? The humans in the U.S. used to be very poor. How did they grow so rich?
      - LaserToy 7y ago
        expluatation. What is your point?
- cryoshon 7y ago
  >Welcome to corporate America. enjoy it while it lasts. there will be more bloodshed soon
  - LaserToy 7y ago
    I don’t enjoy it.that is how the game is played. You either an object of politics (and by politics I mean much more than just government) or you a subject. Here is interesting read for you: Dictator’s handbook. Helped me to finally put the puzzle together.
- lazyjones 7y ago
  > Welcome to corporate America. What does any of that have to do with "corporate" America? When the Eastern Bloc still existed, people there also bought stuff for themselves when they could afford it, instead of buying more stuff for people starving in Africa, where goods would have been "more productive".
TomMckenny 7y ago
>...immoral... There is no morality involved. The assertion is only that's it's more _productive_ to distribute resources this way. Productivity might be a multiplier but can not be innately good itself.
leot 7y ago
What does “earned” mean when we are the inheritors of 100s of trillions of years of brutal, ruthless, evolutionary work done by those who came before us? We are able to at best apply a light touch to the tiller of the massive, complex ship into which we were born that we cannot claim any credit for making. Indeed, no one can. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t credit people for making good choices, but the idea that every penny we get we completely deserve is certainly not an established fact. It is at best an opinion, and a poorly justified one at that.

JauntyHatAngle 7y ago

Why is it all or nothing? A government can certainly form policies and implement changes that attempt to distribute wealth more equitably. Its kinda 101 stuff. That isn't new, is done all the time to varying degrees, and is many, many times removed from "communist utopia".

LaserToy 7y ago

Well, that is a philosophical question. You could’ve used a bus a saved 1000 kids in Africa or you could’ve bought a car and let them die. Same applies for people in another state or even city. We don’t want to pay for someone’s else cancer treatment. We just don’t think about it and most of us just don’t care. I did care more when I was younger, but rose glasses tend to fall when you grow up. I now leaning towards capitalism when I will treat you as bad as the law allows me and extract as much money is possible as it is a fair game. Welcome to corporate America.

generalpass 7y ago
> Well, that is a philosophical question. You could’ve used a bus a saved 1000 kids in Africa or you could’ve bought a car and let them die. Same applies for people in another state or even city. We don’t want to pay for someone’s else cancer treatment. > We just don’t think about it and most of us just don’t care. I did care more when I was younger, but rose glasses tend to fall when you grow up. I now leaning towards capitalism when I will treat you as bad as the law allows me and extract as much money is possible as it is a fair game. > Welcome to corporate America. Why is it that kids in Africa are going to die but not kids in the U.S.? How has such an incredible disparity in wealth come to be? Isn't the incentive structure of private capital ownership a pretty big part in this?
- LaserToy 7y ago
  I just took kids in Africa as an example of humans who are very far away and struggling. I find it unacceptable when people say that they respect human life, but what they actually respect is a life of their neighbor. If we say that human life has no cost we should be investing in saving more lives over lives of someone who lives close by. And yes, the structure has everything to do with it.
  - generalpass 7y ago
    > I just took kids in Africa as an example of humans who are very far away and struggling. I find it unacceptable when people say that they respect human life, but what they actually respect is a life of their neighbor. If we say that human life has no cost we should be investing in saving more lives over lives of someone who lives close by. > And yes, the structure has everything to do with it. So, why are those humans over there struggling while the humans over here are not? What lead to this? The humans in the U.S. used to be very poor. How did they grow so rich?
    - LaserToy 7y ago
      expluatation. What is your point?
cryoshon 7y ago
>Welcome to corporate America. enjoy it while it lasts. there will be more bloodshed soon
- LaserToy 7y ago
  I don’t enjoy it.that is how the game is played. You either an object of politics (and by politics I mean much more than just government) or you a subject. Here is interesting read for you: Dictator’s handbook. Helped me to finally put the puzzle together.
lazyjones 7y ago
> Welcome to corporate America. What does any of that have to do with "corporate" America? When the Eastern Bloc still existed, people there also bought stuff for themselves when they could afford it, instead of buying more stuff for people starving in Africa, where goods would have been "more productive".

TomMckenny 7y ago

>...immoral... There is no morality involved. The assertion is only that's it's more _productive_ to distribute resources this way. Productivity might be a multiplier but can not be innately good itself.

leot 7y ago

What does “earned” mean when we are the inheritors of 100s of trillions of years of brutal, ruthless, evolutionary work done by those who came before us? We are able to at best apply a light touch to the tiller of the massive, complex ship into which we were born that we cannot claim any credit for making. Indeed, no one can. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t credit people for making good choices, but the idea that every penny we get we completely deserve is certainly not an established fact. It is at best an opinion, and a poorly justified one at that.