[MD] U.S. Values: the Jones

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Khaled Alkotob <khaledsa at juno.com>:

> [Khaled]
> As far as I can tell, I am yet to find any one here TELLING you what to
> do with your money. Suggestion were given and not orders, comrade Platt.

Those here who believe there should be laws to "help the poor" are telling me what
I ought to do with my money. Right? 

> [Khaled earlier]
> > > So back to the question. Legends have it that the top most 
> > president of a  Japanese corporation will earn no more than 7 times
> what the 
> > lowest earner makes in the company. ( unless it's a private company,
> then 
> > the owner's share is his).
> > 
> >  What is excess?
> 
> [Platt]
> > Excellent question, one I have asked time and again with only a few
> responses:
> > On what basis do you decide what is right and wrong?
> >Is it up to each of us to decide on his own as some suggest? 
> > Or do we accept the authority of some religion? 
> > Or is the MOQ sufficient as a moral compass?
> > I hope you have better luck than I have in getting contributors to
> answer
> 
> [Khaled]
> As a kid, I came home one summer day all excited because I found a buck
> in the street. My Aunt was visiting us and asked me what I was planning
> on doing with it. Fresh roasted cashews I replied. Here she said, I'll
> give you money to go buy some. I would not have picked up the money but
> would have left for someone who needed it.
> 
> Years later, I still visit that encounter. She was rich beyond rich, and
> As my dad would say, has sold this earthly world for a nickel.
> 
> Think about it, to come on a 5, 10 or a 20 dollar bill, look at it and
> say to yourself, : yes I would like to have it, but don't need it, let
> somebody else have it. Now the catch is for every other finder after you
> to think along the same lines and then it gets to the one in need.
> 
> I know this is a little diversion from our main question. 
> 
> It's all about balance. Work, food, life, drinking, money, vacation,
> family and so on. Trying to keep things in perspective.

So I gather your social morality is based on "need." Those with more should
share what they have with those with less.  Is that correct?

> A couple of questions to add to the mix.
> If you are content, do you tend to share more.
> If you came from a more unfortunate background, does that make you want
> to share more.
> Is it really a net-zero gain in the end, meaning that if the rich did not
> work so hard to "share" later, there would have been more left at the
> bottom to begin with.

All good questions. IMO, these are the sort of questions we ought to be 
discussing in a site devoted to "An Inquiry into Morals."

Platt





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