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- From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
- Newsgroups: ne.politics
- Subject: Re: Ignorance - Was Re: VOTE, BABY, VOTE!
- Message-ID: <1e8fgfINNbkg@transfer.stratus.com>
- Date: 16 Nov 92 15:42:07 GMT
- References: <1992Nov14.044144.14328@oldcolo.com>
- Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
- Organization: Stratus Computer Inc, Marlboro MA
- Lines: 42
- NNTP-Posting-Host: gondolin.pubs.stratus.com
-
- In article <1992Nov14.044144.14328@oldcolo.com> swoodcoc@oldcolo.com
- (Steven Woodcock) writes:
- > I agree with you that people should take care of themselves, and
- that
- > (if they're not able) each individual in our society has an
- obligation to
- > help the less fortunate. You're absolutely spot on.
- >
- > But your solution sucks. You propose that, because society has
- an
- > obligation to help those who are less fortunate, that the
- individuals who
- > comprise society must be FORCED to do so. Your solution is to TAKE
- my
- > money to help those less fortunate than I, not to CONVINCE me that
- it's
- > the right thing to do. Basically, you believe that the end
- justifies the
- > means.
-
- But why stop there? Every road should be a toll road, built
- by a private company, right? I mean, after all, why force
- me to give up some of my money to pay for roads. I'll pay only
- for those that I chose to use. And these damn National Parks.
- Why force me to pay for them? Why, we can even make money by
- selling them off to the oil or mining companies.
-
- While we are a society of individuals we are also a society. When
- we as a society decide to do something (in most cases, this
- decision being made by our elected representatives), there are always
- going to be some who disagree with this decision. However, part
- of their obligation as members of this society (and who benifit
- from being part of that society and from decisions that they
- agree with but some other minority does not) is to abide by the
- decision of the society (or to work at trying to convice people
- to change that decision).
-
-
-
- --
- Jim Mann
- Stratus Computer jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com
-