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Your comment got me thinking. (The best kind of comment.) My first thought on reading it was: is that equivalence valid? A society is a collective; a collectiv
by mithaler 16y ago
Your comment got me thinking. (The best kind of comment.)
My first thought on reading it was: is that equivalence valid? A society is a collective; a collective functions at the behest of its members. My experience of human nature suggests to me that society will contain members who both are and aren't kind to "less valuable" members. So can, or should, a society enforce kindness towards them, even against the members who are disinclined to be so?
Another related question: should we measure a society's value by its total accumulated success, or the success afforded to its "less valuable"?
I don't claim to know the answers.
- vacri 16y agoIf I had to choose a single simple measure, it would be the median level of quality of life. The HDI tries to evaluate that, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality-adjusted_HDI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality... Total accumulated success is easily shown to be a false measure with a thought experiment. Consider two thousand-person communities, one full of middle-class professionals, and one with a single multi-billionaire and the rest are all downbeaten impoverished workers. You'd have to be pretty crazy to suggest that the one with widespread crushing poverty is a better society.