Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
veganfan21 wrote:
I think he's referring to the belief that if you aren't well-off and comfortable in life, then that means you're just not working hard enough. Or if you're sick then you have poor personal habits, or if you can't afford insurance then you shouldn't have bought clothes, etc.
This is the argument I often have with friends of mine, some of them who consider themselves hardcore Libertarians, actual Ron Paul delegates. Not everyone is as capable as you are. Does that mean we should just let them perish? Stand behind them with a whip and make them work to a level that reaches your satisfaction? Or should we just accept that for whatever reason not everyone is capable and if we're going to call ourselves human beings we need to provide for those people?
That's the question. Though I criticize the Ayn Rand types I actually admire some strains of her thinking. What I personally find hard to accept though from her fans is the assumption that everyone starts life from the same spot, and that "success," however defined, is the product of one's own efforts. That's a massive oversimplification, to be kind. It also creates and perpetuates false social hierarchies that make a lot of things about our society tough to swallow, like our disgust with impoverished and/or homeless people.
That being said, I think a lot of Ayn Rand types might read that and say something like "well, why should I be compelled to care for or fund the life of someone who chooses not to work as hard as me?" Ignoring the oversimplification for a minute, that's actually true - I do think it's fair to question how much you're going to allow the fruits of your own labor to be siphoned off to support something else, whatever that may be. But that gets into political philosophy when I think folks should rewind and ask a different question: yeah, I should have a right to enjoy the fruits of my own labor, but assuming I have some basic compassion about others, then what is to be done about people who, for whatever reason, have no fruits to enjoy? And why might they be in that sort of position? This is why I find it hard to not knock some of these Ayn Rand types because I do think, like WFR intimated, that the attitude is "fuck them, they deserve it." I'm all about working hard and taking personal responsibility, but I also recognize I got dealt a good hand in life, and that other people don't get the same hand as me. I don't think Ayn Rand types get that - they believe in a fiction.
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