[MD] Sin

[Platt Holden]

> [Ham]
> I think it is a mistake to judge an economic system in terms of
> morality.
> 
> [Case]
> By what standard would you judge an economic system? I submit that an
> economic system is nothing if not a vehicle for determining and
> apportioning Value. The biggest problem with ours is that it places a
> numerical Value on all Values. Ford can conduct cost benefit analysis
> weighing the benefit in saved lives against the cost of fixing a gas
> tank. Pharmaceutical companies weight the cost of research against the
> number of persons afflicted with an ailment.

When it comes to the economy (the production and distribution of goods 
and services) what would you suggest take the place of a numerical 
value on values? A government bureaucrat perhaps? Or you?

> [Ham]
> The goal of these systems is not to be "moral" but to provide suitable
> incentives and a workable scheme for the harvesting and/or creation,
> production, and marketing of needed commodities.  As such, they have no
> direct relevance to the altrusim, charity, or humanitarian concerns of
> their constituents.  Communism and Socialism might be considered
> exceptions, since they are controlled by the state bureaucracy (or
> autocrat) whose responsibility includes a number of social programs
> involving education, health care, welfare, rehabilitation, etc.
> 
> [Case]
> You confuse society at large with its economic system. A society is
> composed of any number of institutions each with its own Values. Our
> institutions of government are designed to mediate among conflicting
> Values. There is nothing in the framework of the American government
> that enshrines capitalism.

The concept of private property, the basis of capitalism, is in the 
U.S. Constitution.

> There is nothing in it that supports the
> worship of the individual you preach here either.

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created 
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable 
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness 
-- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men
 . . ." They weren't talking about collectives!

> The Sin of our system
> of governance is that we have allowed economic forces to seized control
> of all of our institutions. Wealth is a power for which our founding
> fathers provided no checks or balances in our system.

Wealth comes from creation and production. Thank God our founding 
fathers put very few checks on entrepreneurial liberty to create and 
produce goods and services, but put a lot of checks on that other power-
-government.

> [Ham]
> On the whole, wealthy people in the U.S. are a compassionate and
> generous lot.  But I think it has been demonstrated that as
> privately-owned, free-market  entrepreneurs have been converted to
> state-subsidized conglomerates, the capital available for humanitarian
> aid has shifted from the private sector to government. The more
> government is involved in business and commerce, the higher the taxes,
> and the greater the demand for government services.  We see this
> happening in the Scandinavian countries and Britain, and to a lesser
> extent in the U.S. (although there is no question that it is the
> direction we are heading).
> 
> [Case]
> On the whole government shirks its responsibility to its citizens by
> surrendering its duties to private interest. You act as though public
> expenditure is not a part of the economy. Taxes dollars pay the salaries
> of teachers, researchers, astronauts, physicists, judges, firemen and
> soldiers. These are not dollars wasted they are dollar invested in
> infrastructure, institutions and people. 

Except for the police and military, all other occupations you mentioned 
would be better performed by private enterprise. The waste in 
government is horrendous. Compare FedEx with the U.S. Post Office.

> For someone who disavows the importance of chaos and chance you
> certainly seem to have a lot of faith in its ability to regulate an
> economy.

Chaos and chance doesn't regulate a free market. Thousands of 
individual value judgments do. I think someone called it the "invisible 
hand." 

> Exactly what credentials do you have that allow you to past judgment on
> the peoples of Europe and Africa. 

The same credentials you have to past judgment on anybody.

> [Ham]
> The upshoot of this "progressive" movement is that Government has become
> the source of humanitarian aid by default.  And politicians have a
> penchant for using humanitarian projects as a power base to secure their
> own office.  As a consequence, huge appropriations marked for
> international disaster relief or HIV prevention, for example, often
> don't reach the target populations, and there is little tracking to
> follow up the distribution of funds.  This bureaucratic
> "ineffectiveness", rather than a lack of charitable concern on the part
> of private citizens, may be one of the underlying causes of what you've
> described so poignantly as "Sin".
> 
> [Case]
> Progressive movements arise from neglect. When the institution
> established to meet public needs fail people have turned to government
> for redress. 

> When climate change in the Midwest turned farmland into a dust bowl and
> thousands through no fault of their own were left to starve. 

Left to starve? If you want to know about starvation, check out 
communist Russia. 

> When half of the citizens of our country could not participate in the
> affairs of state because of their sex. 
> 
> When states in the south denied citizens the right to vote and relegated
> an entire race to marginal status. 

The principle of equality before the law was established by the 
founding fathers. You should thank them.  

> When the free market allowed industry to side step the true cost of
> doing business by dumping toxins into the earth, waters and sky. 

The entrepreneurial free market allowed industry to invent methods that 
turn waste into useful, profitable products.   

> You whine about the cost of foreign aid and yet you see no waste in
> blasting off cruise missiles at a million dollars a pop. A B2 bomber
> runs about $2 billion and we just can't have too many. You insult public
> service as inefficient and pretend that public problems can be solved
> through the good graces of people whose sole mission is keeping score
> with dollar. Such hypocrisy beggars the imagination.

What beggars the imagination is the naive idea that this country has no 
enemies and that we could do away with the military. 

> [Ham]
> I needn't point out that your sympathetic human story is spun around
> several of the reasons for poverty that I suggested to Steve; namely,
> mental and physical disability, unstructured goals, (parental)
> immaturity, drug (and alcohol) disorientation, irresponsibility, time in
> prison, criminal (promiscuous) behavior, and (quite probably) low
> self-esteem.  Unfortunately that is a sad fact of life.  That "poor
> stupid lazy people are out there" is also a fact of life.  For human
> beings, as well as lesser creatures, life is a struggle to survive.  But
> the fact that some people are better constituted or more capable than
> others for survival cannot be blamed on Capitalism.
> 
> [Case]
> I don't blame capitalism I blame you; you personally, for
> sanctimoniously proclaiming that a man who can not work because he is
> distracted by unwelcome voices in his head is unworthy of compassion. I
> blame you for judging a woman raped by her uncles at the tender age of
> 10 for having low self esteem. I blame you saying tough tittie to anyone
> who's Value does not measure up to your standards.

I blame you for being a hypocrite because you talk the talk but don't 
walk the walk like Mother Teresa.   
 
> Capitalism is what it is. Measured statistically I suppose we are all
> faring better than most and we could all have an easier time hitting the
> mark if we just abandoned all pretense of giving a rats ass about people
> who are unwilling or unable to be like us. We can starve them to death
> at home, blow then up abroad and build fence to keep out any survivors.
> In your perverse incarnation of Darwinism call it thinning the herd.

An apt expression of Marxist morality where the ethical paradigm isn't 
premised on right and wrong but concern with oppression, giving a pre-
emptive pass to anyone in a one-down position, regardless of that 
person's beliefs or conduct. Highest value is placed on victim status, 
particularly victims of "oppressive" American capitalism and 
imperialism, or in Case's case, a "perverse incarnation of Darwinism."

> [Ham]
> Could you possibly give us an update on this story, Case?  You've
> successfully sparked my interest in knowing what happens to Brandy,
> Joey, and Julie.
> 
> Thanks for a heart-tugging reality tale.
> 
> [Case]
> If you want an update get in your car. I guarantee they aren't 15
> minutes from your house and I bet you don't even need directions to find
> them. Look for a soup kitchen or emergency shelter. Spend an evening in
> the parking lot of your local hospital's ER. It won't take much of your
> time and you can see the past, present and future versions of those kids
> skip, then stumble then crawl right past your window. Hell, for $10 you
> can probably find a capitalist entrepreneur ready to sell you a piece of
> the American dream.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." 
Where have I heard that song before?

Platt