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Your Daughter Wants a Laptop. It Costs the Same as Would Enough Penicillin to Save 125 Lives.
- Thread starter MSizer
- Start date
A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
I think the best solution is giving a percentage of our income to 3rd world causes, and buying goods and services from companies that do not exploit the poor.
Fascinating
MSizer
MSizer
I agree with this. I would add one detail, which is to take the time to investigate charities before donating. From what I can tell, oxfam is a morally laudable org.
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Is it necessarily moral to save the lives of people who will continue to reproduce and create children they, in turn, cannot provide for?
A
angellous_evangellous
Guest
Yes, I meant reputable charities.
Clean water and basic medical supplies are needed all over the world.
Wannabe Yogi
Well-Known Member
People reproduce because of lack of education and wealth. The only retirement program they have is kids. They must have lots of them, kids die in the third world. Also if you look at resources. Americans and Europeans and use much more of them then the poor. We are much more of a problem then they are.
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MSizer
MSizer
That's a good point, although I would say that they do deserve therapeutic provisions, and perhaps birth control and education (yeah, I know, expensive, difficult to implement, but I don't see any argument against it myself)
Wannabe Yogi
Well-Known Member
This is how I justify my life style :
- My one child ( I had one because there are to many rich people on our planet wasting our resources.) My duty is greatest to him. To create a good thinking citizen of the world. His computer is a help to this end.
-I try to limit my wants and desires the best I can. The biggest cause of global warming and use of resources is eating meat. We are vegetarians. We have a small carbon foot print we keep our home cold in the winter and Hot in the summer. I try to limit my driving.
- We pick charities that help the poor and the environment in long term.
- The thing I feel bad about is the time I spent lots of money on a neurosurgeon for my dog.( Someone poisoned him ) So many children have no doctors. I live in a world that to do the right thing is is so hard its like walking the razors edge. This dog saved my life (or at least a very cold night ) when I was lost in the desert.( I could see that he wanted to go some place,so I followed him back to my camp.) The all we can do is live with a open heart and try to do our best. I just hope that I give more then I take. At this point the jury is still out.
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MSizer
MSizer
I agree that these are praiseworthy, but I still find them indefinitive. What is "as best I can"?
Just as an FYI since you mentioned it, my wife and I are moral vegetarians too. Her concern mainly for ecosystems, mine for the wellbeing of living animals. In the end it pretty much boils down to two sides of the same coin IMO.
Whom much is given, much also is expected. If there are only 125 people in need of help and my not buying a lap top will save all of them, then I should not buy the lap top at this time.
If I gave everything I own and people still are suffering, it is beyond my control. I should help but also find a used lap top or one on sale. This is the best of both worlds.
I should make an attempt to raise money for this worthy cause with my spare time.
If I gave everything I own and people still are suffering, it is beyond my control. I should help but also find a used lap top or one on sale. This is the best of both worlds.
I should make an attempt to raise money for this worthy cause with my spare time.
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dust1n
Zindīq
As long you were to acknowledge the purchase of your laptop was equivalent to saving others life, I don't see anything unethical in any decision, as long as you are acknowledging the reality of the situation to the best of your ability.
Of course, if you dissent the powers at be that create these particular situations, and support a movement that enables people to work towards a greater situation for all, without the use of money and class, then you might be able to have both the laptop and the penicillin.
Is it really an either-or proposition?
By the multiplier effect, when I buy the laptop, it will create many times its price in fiscal activity. Some of that activity will presumably translate into giving.
Your purchase of the laptop enables the employees and shareholders of the store, the distributor, the manufacturer, the suppliers, their raw material producers, their equipment suppliers, etc., etc., to pay for the penicillin if they so choose.
I don't think this means that we're absolved of personal responsibility as long as we buy stuff, but I think it's something that should be factored into the decision process.
MSizer
MSizer
What? Maybe I misunderstood you. Are you saying that no matter how I act, it can't be immoral if I am aware of how it is not?
Or are you saying that as long as I can find an argument that rationalizes my actions, they're automatically moral?
I don't follow.
John D
Spiritsurfer
..it doesn't make sense to go through life with a burden of guilt because you are either blessed or worked for what you have.
I do agree that one should take responsibility for your life, it is part of human development.
I live in a part of South Africa that is swamped with refugees from Zimbabwe, all hungry and scared and looking for a new life. In our province there is an unemployment % of +/- 60%, that is local people.
Crime are on the increase and xenafobia is brooding.
a Lot of these "aliens" have a "you owe me" attitude with no responsibilty what so ever. All over are girls and older woman - pregnant.
You can reduce your carbon footprint as much as you want, you can feel guilty because you are breathing if you want, it won't change a thing here in my hometown nor in any other 3 world country.
You have taken up your responsibility and are teaching your children to do the same - it is very noble.
But it is my belief that although food and other stuff are needed by these people, the need for education in basic lifeskills and the understanding of responsibility is much more needed.
Or else the developed nations of this world will just through their resources into a bottemless pit.
Don't give in to a guilt complex
I do agree that one should take responsibility for your life, it is part of human development.
I live in a part of South Africa that is swamped with refugees from Zimbabwe, all hungry and scared and looking for a new life. In our province there is an unemployment % of +/- 60%, that is local people.
Crime are on the increase and xenafobia is brooding.
a Lot of these "aliens" have a "you owe me" attitude with no responsibilty what so ever. All over are girls and older woman - pregnant.
You can reduce your carbon footprint as much as you want, you can feel guilty because you are breathing if you want, it won't change a thing here in my hometown nor in any other 3 world country.
You have taken up your responsibility and are teaching your children to do the same - it is very noble.
But it is my belief that although food and other stuff are needed by these people, the need for education in basic lifeskills and the understanding of responsibility is much more needed.
Or else the developed nations of this world will just through their resources into a bottemless pit.
Don't give in to a guilt complex
dust1n
Zindīq
That being said, I think the more that one assess reality to their fullest extent will be the least inclined to pull off a terrible act.
If someone is going to do something terrible, whether I like it or not, they could at least acknowledge as much as the reality of the situation as possible.
I don't concede to set morality. I think the majority of things in this world are terrible, but my opinion holds no more weight than one that things differently, metaphysically at least.
zenzero
Its only a Label
Friend MSIZER,
Each individual is born to complete his karma and one's duty to his attachments come before others hence if the requirement of the daughter is genuine and must for her career it gets precedence besides those who require help are also there due to their own past karma and existence will find other ways to help them if their karma so necessitates.
Love & rgds
Each individual is born to complete his karma and one's duty to his attachments come before others hence if the requirement of the daughter is genuine and must for her career it gets precedence besides those who require help are also there due to their own past karma and existence will find other ways to help them if their karma so necessitates.
Love & rgds
Yes, it is.
Do you have a child?
Guitar's Cry
Disciple of Pan
Think of how much sex-education and birth control it could buy!