Philosophical Questions: Morals
Jun. 28th, 2025 01:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithPeople have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.
Do people in wealthier countries have a moral obligation to help those in poorer countries?
If you want to hold all the money, you have to pay all the bills. If you don't want to pay all the bills, make sure other folks have enough money to pay their own.
Also, there is no Planet B. Climate change affects everyone -- but the people in wealthy countries who are causing it have thus far suffered less than people in poor countries who haven't caused it. If you don't make it feasible for them to stay in their own countries, they will leave so they don't die, and wash up in wealthy countries. This is already happening some, but you have seen nothing yet. It will be like the waves of the sea beating the shore, over and over again, until people think they would give anything to make it stop. And then it will stop. And then people will wish, just as desperately, to have that many people ever again as the losses pile up and there aren't enough hands left to hold up civilization.
Do people in wealthier countries have a moral obligation to help those in poorer countries?
If you want to hold all the money, you have to pay all the bills. If you don't want to pay all the bills, make sure other folks have enough money to pay their own.
Also, there is no Planet B. Climate change affects everyone -- but the people in wealthy countries who are causing it have thus far suffered less than people in poor countries who haven't caused it. If you don't make it feasible for them to stay in their own countries, they will leave so they don't die, and wash up in wealthy countries. This is already happening some, but you have seen nothing yet. It will be like the waves of the sea beating the shore, over and over again, until people think they would give anything to make it stop. And then it will stop. And then people will wish, just as desperately, to have that many people ever again as the losses pile up and there aren't enough hands left to hold up civilization.
Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 07:55 am (UTC)If the government, rather than individuals, sets a minimum wage, then that wage BETTER be enough to support one person, including housing.
Sure, that interferes with paying for military gear and soldiers to wield it, but it also cuts down the number of deaths from heat stroke because poor people can't afford to run an air conditioner, or deaths from hypothermia because they can't afford to run the heater.
There will always be a few caught by circumstance, like a deep sleeper who simply doesn't wake up when their body is starting a crisis. There should NOT be such indifference to those tragedies in the "wealthiest nation in the world."
We could halve our military spending, and shift all of that money to support--at home, and internationally. "We're not sending bombers to patrol the air around Israel, but we'll send medical supplies and a field hospital with staff" might, just MIGHT make certain bellicose politicians stop playing, "my big brother can beat up yours" on the world stage.
It isn't about HAVING all the money; it's about what our representatives choose to do with it.
Private assets are a whole different problem, and require a separate, more detailed answer, in part because so much of what used to be considered the responsibility of government has been fobbed off to private donations and charities.
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 08:14 am (UTC)That's true. The middle class is shrinking. I like the term "precariat" for America's workforce today.
>> If the government, rather than individuals, sets a minimum wage, then that wage BETTER be enough to support one person, including housing. <<
The minimum wage must provide for all the things that society requires citizens to have (e.g. a college degree, internet service) in addition to survival needs (e.g. food, shelter, health care) or it is nonsense. Current minimum wage covers maybe half to a third that, depending where you live. Nowhere is it enough to afford an apartment at the recommended 30% of income.
>>but it also cuts down the number of deaths from heat stroke because poor people can't afford to run an air conditioner, or deaths from hypothermia because they can't afford to run the heater.<<
Not to mention highrise apartment fires from someone trying to use the oven as a heater because the heat is broken.
>> We could halve our military spending, and shift all of that money to support--at home, and internationally. <<
If only. Even Terramagne-America has limits, though. They cut out all the cruft ... down to the point where America's military budget is slightly above the next-smaller. And that's Dead Man's Ditch. There is a complete refusal to cross that line.
>> It isn't about HAVING all the money; it's about what our representatives choose to do with it. <<
Well said.
>>Private assets are a whole different problem, and require a separate, more detailed answer, in part because so much of what used to be considered the responsibility of government has been fobbed off to private donations and charities.<<
I don't believe that any one individual should hold wealth greater than a whole country, or anywhere near that. Conversely, the more resources you hold or control, the more responsibility you have to use them for the common good instead of masturbating your ego.
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 09:22 am (UTC)Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 09:30 am (UTC)A better way would be to say that I favor socialized needs and privatized wants. Everyone should have a right to survival needs plus whatever society deems necessary. If you want to work harder for luxuries, that's up to you.
As opposed this shit.
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 10:09 am (UTC)Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-29 05:21 am (UTC)Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 06:43 pm (UTC)Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 06:50 pm (UTC)My son, thirty-ish, is already planning to steer his toddler toward trade school NOT college. I'm perfectly fine with that. (My stepdad had a doctorate, my mom got an AA degree that was utterly useless by the time she took the last semester of classes to get it, and I'm rather indifferent to being able to check "some college education" on those ridiculous questionnaires.)
Education is more a measure of opportunity and resources, rather than intelligence.
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-29 05:28 am (UTC)Sensible if the toddler is good at handiwork. Look for work that has to be done locally, cannot be outsourced, is difficult or impossible to automate, and is crucial. Plumbing, for instance. Especially consider jobs likely to increase as climate change progresses, like green energy or tree service.
>>Education is more a measure of opportunity and resources, rather than intelligence.<<
Yep. Intelligence is about how well you think, how fast you think, your ability to make leaps of insight, and how easy some categories of things are for you compared to others. The process, not the content.
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 08:50 pm (UTC)* College used to be for academics. That worked.
* Now society wants everyone to attend college, but doesn't want to pay for it.
* College costs have risen astronomically. Where it used to be possible to work your way through school, now most people take on massive debt to do so.
* Degree inflation means that a bachelor's degree is now the equivalent that a high school diploma used to be, and most professional jobs require a master's degree or higher.
* Employers are allowed to use college as a means test for job applications; instead of requiring a degree relevant to the field they can just say "a 4-year degree."
The end result is that, in order to be allowed to apply for a job that might earn enough to live on, you have to mortgage your life, because the chance of earning enough to actually pay off the debt is miniscule unless you can afford a specialized degree (e.g. doctor, lawyer). By the time you subtract the usurious loan payments, you will still be poor. So you might as well just be poor with less work and hassle.
College used to offer a concrete step up, because not everybody did it. When most people do it, then it loses that value, and you have to work harder and pay more money to get that boost. Plus, the content value is much lower. I wasn't impressed by my college experience, but at least I got a full four years of my chosen subject alongside a heap of lard I didn't want or need. Now many colleges require at least two years of solid lard before you can even start the courses you actually want for your career, which are shrunk down to two years. But all that extra lard means that students struggle to get through it, so many drop out early; many more need 5-6 years to finish an alleged 4-year degree and can't afford that, thus dropping out late.
The system is fundamentally broken.
Oh, and after decades of shitting on blue-collar workers, now we have a shortage of people able to do things like fix plumbing or remove fallen trees from the yard. Which is a very bad thing heading into climate change.
I'd recommend that young people today look at their trade options, especially if they are good with their hands and not bookworms. Check your local businesses, where is there a shortage? What trades have a local union to protect you?
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 06:42 pm (UTC)Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 06:53 pm (UTC)The problem of private wealth is even worse, because while I believe that my own work should give me the benefit OF that work, as close to in full as possible given taxes as they are, there is so much inherited wealth and wealth tied up in trusts, dividends, and /asset/ income which most people will never attain, that it's become a parody of the American ideal of working hard to make your kids' lives better and more comfortable than your own.
Home ownership is now out of reach for most of my sons' generation, and it's rapidly becoming a taunting pipe dream for a larger and larger portion of the population regardless of age.
Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 06:56 pm (UTC)Re: Not just countries
Date: 2025-06-28 07:04 pm (UTC)