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Compassion is of little value without policy and actions to back it up.

• newaccount2021 4y ago
• RhysU 4y ago
  But ineffective policies and wasteful actions are also a funny way to express compassion.
• tremon 4y ago
  On the contrary, it's much easier to justify institutional harshness if you assume individual compassion in the population. Then you get policies like "we don't need a social safety net (institutional compassion) because we have tax-deductible donations (institutional, discretional compassion)". Or similarly "we don't need progressive taxation because wealthy individuals employ more people" (i.e. the trickle-down fallacy).
  • MomoXenosaga 4y ago
    Ah yes donations I have my doubts libertarians will donate as much money to the needy as they pay in taxes to the government. Turns out people are assholes and you need to take their money by force- ie government.
    • ericmay 4y ago
      Perhaps they donate less because that disposable income is taken via taxation by the government? Seems equally plausible to me. Bucketing people so simply is a mistake. Often libertarians (similar to communists or any other political ideology) genuinely want to make things better and have genuine complaints about how things are run that would stand up to analysis. I lean libertarian myself in many ways. I don’t care who you marry or if you dye your hair blue. I don’t care if you get an abortion (your right to choose - I’m a strong supporter of abortion rights), etc. I support exploring universal healthcare as well because it’s clear that solutions we’ve tried in the past are suboptimal and we are being outcompeted here. Environmental concerns are something that libertarians strongly support. You polluting the air harms me and others. Destroying the rainforest harms me and others. But I also think market mechanics tend to solve problems better and we can see that with environmental concerns where public policy isn’t enough - you need a 1-2 punch of policy and market mechanics like a carbon credit or coin or something. The public schools are a problem for example because Conservatives believe that Liberals have taken them over (untrue IMO) and are dictating teaching political ideology. This is a problem because if you lose power (as liberals have done in many states) then you are now subject to what the other party wants taught. There’s room here to explore - and universities (which need reform) show how choosing where you go to school instead of basing it on regressive property tax systems which require housing by-in could work. There’s a lot we can figure out. I think for libertarians they should look at government less so as a thief and more of a platform. One thing you’ll note though is that libertarianism can accommodate communism, while the reverse isn’t true. That’s a key problem with certain ideologies like fascism or communism. People have been starting communes and worker collectives in America for a long time. There were never free markets or entrepreneurs starting new businesses in a meaningful way in Soviet Russia or Maoist China.
      • tremon 4y ago
        It also works the other way around: high taxation absolves me of moral obligations towards charitable causes, because through government we have institutionalized our compassion. The government's moral failures in that area are not mine to bear personally. (not that I don't give to charities, but I tend to view my charities as political acts rather than moral acts).
        • ericmay 4y ago
          Yea good point
    • zo1 4y ago
      Maybe a nice in-between stepping stone: let people choose what portion of their taxes goes where. Maybe we find out that good portions of government spending like education, social welfare, etc all get a huge boost in funding whilst leaving military and other policies with less funding. Maybe it makes everyone happy that they are doing their part for the things they believe are important, like charity. Instead of fighting for crumbs for their cause after most of the tax revenue has been allocated to wasteful projects. We don't even get to pick this basic thing right now. I don't know about you but it spoils the taste of this supposed democracy to me. And then to be told I'm an asshole for wanting such basic autonomy is the cream on the top. This is not noble and just at all, democracy doesn't deserve such descriptors.
  • tremon 4y ago
    tax-deductible donations (institutional, discretional compassion)" Argh, very bad typo. This should be individual compassion of course.