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dark_crystal · 10-02-2019, 05:12 AM

When it comes to "free" stuff like college and health care i am absolutely fine with paying more taxes.

As someone who watched my father's career become obsolete due to technology, and whose own career is constantly held up as an example of a job technology could do (it can't), i believe that more and more people are going to be automated out of their jobs. Retail is collapsing and trucking is on its way out, and those are massive swathes of the population. We are not going to have jobs for all of those people. This is the worst time in history to be talking about personal responsibility.

People whose jobs become obsolete should seek retraining, of course. But if they can't afford it, or simply are not smart enough, or get too depressed and demoralized to try, or get mad at the world and resolve to suck the government teat as revenge, should that be a literal death sentence?

When the safety net is thin, or has holes in it, and we leave those holes or make them bigger, what we are saying is that it is ok for some people to fall through and literally die of exposure, starvation, or lack of health care.

That might have been true in the pre-industrial era, but i think a country that produces billionaires should have enough of a safety net to ensure that every single person is at least minimally housed and fed, whether they deserve it or not. We don't have to keep them comfortably, but we do have to keep everyone alive, i think.

i do not care if people are lazy. Laziness should not get you cast out onto the street and left to starve, in this day and age-- in past eras, yes, sure, maybe everybody needed to pull their weight. But in a society where one guy (Jeff Bezos) can make $4,475,885 per hour i just don't see how we can accept people dying from insulin rationing or of exposure from sleeping under a bridge somewhere.

There is no morality under which one guy "deserves" to make $4,475,885 per hour and another guy "deserves" to starve on the street. No achievement gap that big can actually exist between two human persons. Bezos may be a superior human to some degree, but it is not possible that anyone at all can be that superior to anyone else.

10-02-2019, 05:12 AM	#608
dark_crystal Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: jenny Preferred Pronoun?: babygirl Relationship Status: First Lady of the United SMH Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,445 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,532 Thanked 26,589 Times in 4,691 Posts Rep Power: 21474856	When it comes to "free" stuff like college and health care i am absolutely fine with paying more taxes. As someone who watched my father's career become obsolete due to technology, and whose own career is constantly held up as an example of a job technology could do (it can't), i believe that more and more people are going to be automated out of their jobs. Retail is collapsing and trucking is on its way out, and those are massive swathes of the population. We are not going to have jobs for all of those people. This is the worst time in history to be talking about personal responsibility. People whose jobs become obsolete should seek retraining, of course. But if they can't afford it, or simply are not smart enough, or get too depressed and demoralized to try, or get mad at the world and resolve to suck the government teat as revenge, should that be a literal death sentence? When the safety net is thin, or has holes in it, and we leave those holes or make them bigger, what we are saying is that it is ok for some people to fall through and literally die of exposure, starvation, or lack of health care. That might have been true in the pre-industrial era, but i think a country that produces billionaires should have enough of a safety net to ensure that every single person is at least minimally housed and fed, whether they deserve it or not. We don't have to keep them comfortably, but we do have to keep everyone alive, i think. i do not care if people are lazy. Laziness should not get you cast out onto the street and left to starve, in this day and age-- in past eras, yes, sure, maybe everybody needed to pull their weight. But in a society where one guy (Jeff Bezos) can make $4,475,885 per hour i just don't see how we can accept people dying from insulin rationing or of exposure from sleeping under a bridge somewhere. There is no morality under which one guy "deserves" to make $4,475,885 per hour and another guy "deserves" to starve on the street. No achievement gap that big can actually exist between two human persons. Bezos may be a superior human to some degree, but it is not possible that anyone at all can be that superior to anyone else. __________________