[MD] Down the road of mediocrity

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Platt]
Sam Walton an advancer of social patterns? How so? To me he is high 
intellect having created a better system of distributing goods.

[Arlo]
Manufacture, production and distribution are social level activities. 
Calculus, chaos theory and quantum physics are intellectual patterns. 
But I'm still trying to figure out how we tell who is more moral, or 
better, than someone else? You've suggested (1) criminality and...

[Platt]
Fighting for dynamic freedom. I don't why it is so hard for many here 
to understand and accept that in the MOQ freedom the highest value.

[Arlo]
My question is, is a soldier a better person than a firefighter? If 
so, why? I'll wait til you answer this because it leads to the only 
other suggestion you've made, that putting oneself in harms way for 
the greater good makes one a better person than someone who does not.

[Platt]
No, I don't mean that. What has medical assistance got to do with who 
is morally superior?

[Arlo]
Well, you were the one who drifted from who should and who should not 
get medical treatment by asking whether or not I think some people 
are better. I assume this implies that the "better" people are the 
ones who should get medical assistance, while the "valueless" do not.

But my point continues to be this, if we let the economic market 
determine who does and who does not receive medical care, then we are 
tying the value of human life to that person's ability to generate wealth.

[Platt]
Freedom means you can support all the poor who make you feel good 
supporting. It doesn't mean you have the right to put a gun to your 
neighbor's head and force him to pay for your cold medicine.

[Arlo]
You claim rings hollow, since you have no problem whatsoever using 
that "gun" to force me to do other things. Besides, the "gun to your 
head" rhetoric is a bit stale. Paying into our great infrastructure 
benefits everyone, from libraries to a social safety net. Its a honor 
to be part of this system, and to pay my membership dues. I hope I 
never need it, but I've seen bad things happen to good people, and I 
have no reason to think that I, or anyone else, is special. Not to 
mention that we all pay, even with "insurance", because if you have 
used more insurance money than you've paid in, that extra difference 
comes from them raising MY premiums and MY deductibles.

You're welcome. :-)