On Apr 5, 7:21 am, Michael Gordge xtra.co.nz> wrote:

Of course, this manages to ignore even family ties. Many child support
deadbeat Dads have used "libertarian" arguments to weasel out of their
moral obligations.

In fact, the idea is completely false and wrong, and just as anti-
Semitism is the socialism of fools, this idea is the capitalism of
fools...and losers.

The very computer you use was constructed by trillions of man-hours of
development since the Middle Ages, of primitive calculators,
mainframes and the early PC, and MOST of the developers of the
technology didn't receive a fair reward. Linux alone was written by
virtual volunteer slaves.

Real players of the real capitalist game know that wealth accumulation
consists of thugs in suits expropriating others just within the law,
which they, when they become powerful enough, change to keep the game
going. They laugh at their hired intellectuals who as the new, right-
wing/libertarian chattering class, simply justify their criminality.

This is completely idiotic. The parent's first instinct should the
plane depressurize is to take care of her child first (and this proves
that altruism is irreducibly present and can't be wished away, much
less called, perversely, "evil").

But, she has to be functional enough to take care of the kid. Society
lets her take care of her own "selfish" needs JUST ENOUGH to take care
of her child.

Whereas Ayn Rand would very possibly stare with her oxygen mask at her
own child as her own child died through lack of oxygen, it being too
much trouble to help the kid. She would almost certainly let a
stranger's kid die. This is because neither act would benefit her.

Ayn Rand would step over a dying baby on the street.

The airline has the parent act "selfishly" NOT for "libertarian" or
Randian virtue-of-selfishness reasons, but for Rawlsian and liberal
reasons. The "difference principle" in Rawls is the theory that a just
society would indeed allow people to grow richer, but only insofar as
that benefits the least well off; in fact, the Reagan revolution was
sold to the public using the Rawlsian metaphor that "a rising tide
lifts all boats", because people wouldn't have stood for it if the
real programme had been announced.

The mother is allowed to put her oxygen mask on, and gain a few
precious seconds of oxygen, not because selfishness is a virtue but so
as to allow her to continue to be altrusitic.

Taking care of your own needs so as to meet your responsibilities and
be altruistic isn't "selfishness". If you do so, you aren't "selfish"
at all. You are RESPONSIBLE.

This is hate-filled babble and nothing more, and it illustrates my
bottom line:

SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM