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"That is my principal objection to life, I think: It's too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes." ~ Kurt Vonnegut I think your mistake is to t

"That is my principal objection to life, I think: It's too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes." ~ Kurt Vonnegut I think your mistake is to think everyone is capable of knowing the consequences of their actions. Letting all people suffer the full consequences of all their actions, when it would cost little to get them off the hook, seems wrong to me, and to many others. Life isn't fair, and it never will be. But we, as intelligent human beings, can do a lot to make it more fair. I think that is an overall win for everyone.

jpadkins 15y ago
> I think that is an overall win for everyone. Except for when you make life more fair by handicapping the high performers. See Kurt's Harrison Bergeron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron
- doki_pen 15y ago
  That is a very odd interpretation of Harrison Bergeron. You believe that it's about taxes and the welfare state? I find that hard to believe considering Kurt was a self proclaimed socialist.
bkmartin 15y ago
doki_pen, you make a great point. Lets also not forget that many people who end up in these situations actually grew up in them as well. Many of their parents didn't finish high school, don't have good jobs, and were born when their parents were only teenagers. A lot of people who live out these scenarios have never had anything better modeled to them. Preached to them, yes, but modeled? No. So when a kid, at home, is always being told and modeled things that will skew them away from making good decisions what do you expect? What do you expect when their Mom, who they love and trust (for no other reason than its their Mom, how do they know any better?), tells them that their teachers are wrong because of x or y and that you need to look out for yourself and that no one will help and yadda yadda yadda... yeah, some people aren't making bad decisions with all the facts laid out in front of them. Its easy to be an armchair quarter back, but instead of riding these people through their misery, why not show some love and compassion and try to help them out. This will go much further than beating them down and continuing not only the economic cycle, but the cultural one as well.
cardine 15y ago
If the rest of society is ready to make sure nobody faces the consequences of their actions I see no incentive for anyone to care about the consequences of the choices they make. "Why should I care about whether I make the right decision or not when everyone is ready to bail me out?" Maybe people should stop making excuses for themselves and take responsibility for what they choose to do everyday.

jpadkins 15y ago

> I think that is an overall win for everyone. Except for when you make life more fair by handicapping the high performers. See Kurt's Harrison Bergeron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

doki_pen 15y ago
That is a very odd interpretation of Harrison Bergeron. You believe that it's about taxes and the welfare state? I find that hard to believe considering Kurt was a self proclaimed socialist.

bkmartin 15y ago

doki_pen, you make a great point. Lets also not forget that many people who end up in these situations actually grew up in them as well. Many of their parents didn't finish high school, don't have good jobs, and were born when their parents were only teenagers. A lot of people who live out these scenarios have never had anything better modeled to them. Preached to them, yes, but modeled? No. So when a kid, at home, is always being told and modeled things that will skew them away from making good decisions what do you expect? What do you expect when their Mom, who they love and trust (for no other reason than its their Mom, how do they know any better?), tells them that their teachers are wrong because of x or y and that you need to look out for yourself and that no one will help and yadda yadda yadda... yeah, some people aren't making bad decisions with all the facts laid out in front of them. Its easy to be an armchair quarter back, but instead of riding these people through their misery, why not show some love and compassion and try to help them out. This will go much further than beating them down and continuing not only the economic cycle, but the cultural one as well.

cardine 15y ago

If the rest of society is ready to make sure nobody faces the consequences of their actions I see no incentive for anyone to care about the consequences of the choices they make. "Why should I care about whether I make the right decision or not when everyone is ready to bail me out?" Maybe people should stop making excuses for themselves and take responsibility for what they choose to do everyday.