CDR: Re: why should it be trusted?

[Marshall Clow]

At 3:25 AM -0400 10/23/00, Dave Emery wrote:
>	Whether or not you view this as bad depends on your very basic
>views about the social compact and fairness - is it just bad luck and
>tough sushi for the poor unfortunate or should we as a society offer
>at least some safe harbor for those who drew the short straws ?

My opinion on this is:
	No, we should not, as a society, offer any "safe harbor
to those that draw the short straws".

If you (as an individual) feel that these people should be helped,
then you should help them.

You are of course welcome to join with other like minded people and
form a "Indigent Aid Society" to help them in larger numbers.

Myself, I feel no compulsion to help "people".
My help is directed at individuals, whom I have personal knowledge of.
I don't contract out my charity to some faceless bureaucrat.


>And if we do offer such, how much of our collective wealth should we spend
>on it - .005%, 0.5% 1 %, 5%, 35% ?
>    And how should we decide this ?

That one's easy. As much as each person wants to spend, individually decided.
If you want to spend 90% of your wealth on this, that your business.


>And what happens in a world in which the mechanisms by which we express
>such sentiments erode as states wither...

Before the state got into the "do-gooding" business, there were many more
private charities.  Most of them couldn't compete with the state-sponsored ones,
for obvious reasons.
-- 
-- Marshall

"The era of big government is over."
           Bill Clinton, State of the Union Address, January 23, 1996
Marshall Clow     MusicMatch   <mailto:mclow at mailhost2.csusm.edu>