Nice use of Frankfurt though I thought that you were going some place else instead of the penalty/tax stuff. Anyway, for those who are more interested in the policy implications of BS, see: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286630902806080
And Frankfurt's essay is readily available on the Interwebs if one use scholar.google.com. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] ---------------------------- Original Message --------------------------------- On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:10:30 -0700, Christopher Green wrote: On 2012-07-15, at 3:07 PM, "mjchael sylvester" <[email protected]> wrote: > A penalty or a tax? I am trying to subsume Obama care withing the learning > theory paradigm using the Skinnerian model. > As the philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote in his perennially relevant essay _On Bu||$hit_, "The bu||$hitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensable characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to" (p. 54). I put it to you that the entire penalty/tax "debate" is classic bu||$hit in that it serves no useful purpose other than to distract us from the singular fact that somewhere between 40 and 50 million Americans had no health insurance before, and that many tens of millions more were bound to their jobs like chattel because they had acquired a medical condition which would be used against them if they were to attempt to change jobs and get new insurance. If the the tax/penalty bu||$hitters can get you to forget that, then they might be able to get you upset about taxes. If that doesn't work. They'll try something else. Anything to prevent you from keeping your eye on the ball. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=19027 or send a blank email to leave-19027-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
