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Can you identify these undeserving people? Can you do so at scale with reasonable expense, such that you don't end up spending the majority of your money deter
by jude- 5y ago
Can you identify these undeserving people? Can you do so at scale with reasonable expense, such that you don't end up spending the majority of your money determining who is "worthy" and who isn't?
If the answer to either of these is "no," then the question is fundamentally between helping everyone who's struggling (even those who don't deserve it), and helping no one. The former option might piss off a few fortunate people who could maintain rent (with sacrifices) during the pandemic, but the latter option would put many, many people and their dependents out on the street. The latter clearly creates far, far more pain and suffering than the former. Moreover, the former form of suffering is self-inflicted -- these fortunate people choose to feel resentment.
- refurb 5y agoNo, this is not about choosing to feel resentment this is the basic human sense of fairness and justice. It’s not an American belief, it’s pretty universally human. And your straw man is just that - a straw man. It’s not a choice between “forgive rent” or not. The current approach is shit. Find a better one.
- jude- 5y agoThis is absolutely about choosing to feel resentment. Why else would you care that someone else got a leg-up if it doesn't affect you, personally? Like, nothing was taken from you, and nothing was done to you, and yet you still feel bad that someone else's life just got better. That's resentment.
- refurb 5y agoThought experiment. Everyone in the US gets a $10,000 stimulus payment, except you. Is that fair? Nothing has been taken from you. Now think about it in terms of income inequality. If someone makes $1M per year, why do you care? It doesn't hurt you. You choose to feel resentment because someone else is better off.
- jude- 5y agoFirst, fairness != resentment. One is a quantifiable statement, and the other is a feeling. It would not be fair to me if I didn't get the stimulus while everyone else did, but I would still be quite happy for everyone else. > Now think about it in terms of income inequality. If someone makes $1M per year, why do you care? It doesn't hurt you. I don't care, because by itself, someone else earning $1M per year doesn't affect me. What I do care about is when people turn their wealth into power, because that does affect me (and many others). Like, income inequality wouldn't be a problem if the high-income people didn't keep using their wealth to exert undue influence (to put it politely) in politics, religion, media, and other shared aspects of our society. See the difference? I don't resent people for being wealthy. My feelings towards them depend on the things they do with it.
- refurb 5y agoI don't resent people for being wealthy. My feelings towards them depend on the things they do with it. Then we agree. I don't resent people for having their rent debt forgiven, I resent them for having it forgiven when they had the ability to pay it all along.
- jude- 5y agoI'm not sure it's going to be that clear-cut. If you rented a place, and can prove you could have afforded it, but simultaneously can't prove that you paid rent for all the times it was due, then that's going to hurt your future ability to rent and/or borrow money for some time. Future renters and loan officers look (or will soon start looking) at this data.
- refurb 5y agoSome localities are making it illegal to screen based on credit history or passed evictions. See where we’re going?