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Why not? Is there any compelling reason not to make the life of other people better? Is there any reason we should leave people work countless hours, suffer, a

Why not? Is there any compelling reason not to make the life of other people better? Is there any reason we should leave people work countless hours, suffer, and likely dying due to diseases that manifest out of stress (e.g. cancer)? Imagine for a moment a society such that there's no need for the proles to steal or hurt people. Criminality drops to near zero, world is safer, we all get to thrive. Edit: Kind reminder to argue for the position instead of downvoting out of disagreement.

pc86 4y ago
Ignoring the obviously ridiculous implication that stress causes cancer[0], there can certainly be enough instances where making someone else's life better makes yours worse, at least enough that it's completely reasonable to just pause for a moment and ask "why," expected a better answer than "why not" [0] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/feelings/stress-fact-sheet#can-psychological-stress-cause-cancer https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/feelings/stress-f...
- grey-area 4y ago
  Life is not a zero sum game. if you insist on treating it like one, you will lose.
  - pc86 4y ago
    Platitudes aside, I'm not suggesting it is, and I'm not treating it like it is. I'm simply saying "why" is a reasonable question and "yeah well why not" isn't.
    - grey-area 4y ago
      > making someone else's life better makes yours worse Definition of a zero sum game: A situation in which one person or group can win something only by causing another person or group to lose it
- PartiallyTyped 4y ago
  > there can certainly be enough instances where making someone else's life better makes yours worse And myriads of instances where helping others makes your life better. In-fact, not to help other people is unequivocally a horrible and myopic decision. For starters, we need exponential number of scientists to keep making linear progress. Furthermore, paying taxes which are used to fund education results in lower criminality [1]. Furthermore, we have that investing in education can give back a 5x ROI [2]. [1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4901649_The_Effect_of_Education_on_Crime_Evidence_from_Prison_Inmates_Arrests_and_Self-Reports https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4901649_The_Effect_... [2] https://about.ku.dk/facts-figures/value-for-society/ https://about.ku.dk/facts-figures/value-for-society/
- PartiallyTyped 4y ago
  Maybe not cancer, but .... > For example, it is now generally acknowledged that for heart disease—the nation’s leading cause of death—emotional stress is a major risk factor, equal in importance to other such recognized risk factors as hypertension, cigarette smoking, elevated serum cholesterol level, obesity, and diabetes. Stress also has been recognized as an important risk factor in high blood pressure, ulcers, colitis, asthma, pain syndromes (e.g., migraine, cluster, and tension headaches; backaches), skin diseases, insomnia, and various psychological disorders. Most standard medical textbooks attribute anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of all disease to stress-related origins. https://med.stanford.edu/survivingcancer/cancer-and-stress/stress-and-cancer.html https://med.stanford.edu/survivingcancer/cancer-and-stress/s...
whiddershins 4y ago
The picture of humanity you give here isn’t fact based. At least in the United States: No one ‘has to’ crime. People commit crime primarily because they have poor impulse control and lack long term thinking. Or because they just really don’t like school and don’t like working a job, and don’t have any other ideas. We aren’t living in medieval France where peasants are stealing loaves of bread. People aren’t committing crimes because they are poor. Lots of incredibly poor people commit no crime at all. Statistically it is a small subset of people.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- PartiallyTyped 4y ago
  Argue that free will exists, and provide some citations.

pc86 4y ago

Ignoring the obviously ridiculous implication that stress causes cancer[0], there can certainly be enough instances where making someone else's life better makes yours worse, at least enough that it's completely reasonable to just pause for a moment and ask "why," expected a better answer than "why not" [0] https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/feelings/stress-fact-sheet#can-psychological-stress-cause-cancer https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/coping/feelings/stress-f...

grey-area 4y ago
Life is not a zero sum game. if you insist on treating it like one, you will lose.
- pc86 4y ago
  Platitudes aside, I'm not suggesting it is, and I'm not treating it like it is. I'm simply saying "why" is a reasonable question and "yeah well why not" isn't.
  - grey-area 4y ago
    > making someone else's life better makes yours worse Definition of a zero sum game: A situation in which one person or group can win something only by causing another person or group to lose it
PartiallyTyped 4y ago
> there can certainly be enough instances where making someone else's life better makes yours worse And myriads of instances where helping others makes your life better. In-fact, not to help other people is unequivocally a horrible and myopic decision. For starters, we need exponential number of scientists to keep making linear progress. Furthermore, paying taxes which are used to fund education results in lower criminality [1]. Furthermore, we have that investing in education can give back a 5x ROI [2]. [1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4901649_The_Effect_of_Education_on_Crime_Evidence_from_Prison_Inmates_Arrests_and_Self-Reports https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4901649_The_Effect_... [2] https://about.ku.dk/facts-figures/value-for-society/ https://about.ku.dk/facts-figures/value-for-society/
PartiallyTyped 4y ago
Maybe not cancer, but .... > For example, it is now generally acknowledged that for heart disease—the nation’s leading cause of death—emotional stress is a major risk factor, equal in importance to other such recognized risk factors as hypertension, cigarette smoking, elevated serum cholesterol level, obesity, and diabetes. Stress also has been recognized as an important risk factor in high blood pressure, ulcers, colitis, asthma, pain syndromes (e.g., migraine, cluster, and tension headaches; backaches), skin diseases, insomnia, and various psychological disorders. Most standard medical textbooks attribute anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of all disease to stress-related origins. https://med.stanford.edu/survivingcancer/cancer-and-stress/stress-and-cancer.html https://med.stanford.edu/survivingcancer/cancer-and-stress/s...

whiddershins 4y ago

The picture of humanity you give here isn’t fact based. At least in the United States: No one ‘has to’ crime. People commit crime primarily because they have poor impulse control and lack long term thinking. Or because they just really don’t like school and don’t like working a job, and don’t have any other ideas. We aren’t living in medieval France where peasants are stealing loaves of bread. People aren’t committing crimes because they are poor. Lots of incredibly poor people commit no crime at all. Statistically it is a small subset of people.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
PartiallyTyped 4y ago
Argue that free will exists, and provide some citations.