[Platt] If a jailed criminal refuses to work I see no moral obligation to provide him with food and health care.
[Arlo] Pirsig would disagree. Passively letting someone starve is no different than actively pulling an executioners stick. [Platt] I see a threat to liberty in any intrusion by the government into private lives. Our history is a history of government nitpicking away at individual liberty -- resulting the kind of paralysis Pirsig described in Lila. [Arlo] Taxation to fund health care for the poor is no more an "intrusion" than taxation to fund public lands. They are both legitimate functions of government. [Platt] And IMHO a culture that measures value of life above liberty is a truly sick culture. [Arlo] Taxation to fund medical care for the poor is not valuing life above "liberty", any more than taxation to fund public parks is. The value of a human life is not measured by his pocketbook, regardless of the spin you try to put on it. moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
