4 ms·

Forced “altruism” through taxation, and government “giving” without any personal, family and community support and mentorship — that can be strongly argued to b

Forced “altruism” through taxation, and government “giving” without any personal, family and community support and mentorship — that can be strongly argued to be immoral. The results seem to speak for themselves; see multigenerational community collapse (eg. inner cities), vs. children coming out of faith-run children’s homes, or in distressed families supported by faith communities.

_jal 6y ago
Comparing community collapse situations to small charities who can choose their wards is just silly. It is less silly, but also misses the point, to assume warehouse ghettos were sincere attempts to improve the lot of anyone. There have been moments, and the history of different efforts is varied, but most of these efforts were to ghettoize and sequester minorities, not improve conditions. It amazes me the extent to which The Wire has become something from which people argue policy. I feel like a significant percentage of people's arguments come from fiction.
vidarh 6y ago
Conversely, people have long argued that accumulation of property is itself immoral. Libertarianism (the original libertarianism, as founded by Dejacque, not right-wing libertarianism) was founded on wanting to go further than Proudhon's infamous "property is theft" - Dejacque argued that freedom is only possible if one rejects the very notion of accepting that some people have a right to restrict others from having their needs met by enforcing property rights and the like. That either taxation or altruism is necessary is a failure of society and community in the first place. EDIT: It's fascinating to see how unwilling people are to see a counter to the argument above of taxation being immoral. The idea of taxation as immoral is after all another fairly extreme fringe view.

4 ms·

Forced “altruism” through taxation, and government “giving” without any personal, family and community support and mentorship — that can be strongly argued to b

by pjkundert 6y ago

_jal 6y ago
Comparing community collapse situations to small charities who can choose their wards is just silly. It is less silly, but also misses the point, to assume warehouse ghettos were sincere attempts to improve the lot of anyone. There have been moments, and the history of different efforts is varied, but most of these efforts were to ghettoize and sequester minorities, not improve conditions. It amazes me the extent to which The Wire has become something from which people argue policy. I feel like a significant percentage of people's arguments come from fiction.
vidarh 6y ago
Conversely, people have long argued that accumulation of property is itself immoral. Libertarianism (the original libertarianism, as founded by Dejacque, not right-wing libertarianism) was founded on wanting to go further than Proudhon's infamous "property is theft" - Dejacque argued that freedom is only possible if one rejects the very notion of accepting that some people have a right to restrict others from having their needs met by enforcing property rights and the like. That either taxation or altruism is necessary is a failure of society and community in the first place. EDIT: It's fascinating to see how unwilling people are to see a counter to the argument above of taxation being immoral. The idea of taxation as immoral is after all another fairly extreme fringe view.