Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ucbcad!nike!lll-crg!lll-lcc!styx!mcb
From: mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch)
Newsgroups: misc.misc,net.misc
Subject: Re: Poor People/Lazy People
Message-ID: <20909@styx.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Oct-86 01:55:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: styx.20909
Posted: Tue Oct 14 01:55:41 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Oct-86 17:32:12 EDT
References: <1010@cad.cs.cmu.edu> <1050001@hpspkla.HP.COM>
Reply-To: mcb@styx.UUCP (Michael C. Berch)
Distribution: na
Organization: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore CA
Lines: 37
Xref: ucbvax misc.misc:5 net.misc:333

In article <2021@ihlpa.UUCP> gadfly@ihlpa.UUCP (Ken Perlow) writes:
> > >The question is not whether these shiftless and lazy (didn't you forget
> > >"dirty"?) folks have a claim on your wealth.  The question is whether
> > >you have obligations to people you don't even know.  If you've got
> > >any semblance of ethics in your yuppie, designer brains you know that
> > >you *do* have such obligations. [...]
> > 
> > Okay, Ken. You're on.
> > 
> > Why not let us in on what _your_ ethical system is that demands this
> > obligation? I'm not arguing the obligation; I am curious to hear to
> > your justification.
> 
> *My* ethical system that demands "this obligation"?  You say this as if
> it had to be some bizarre cultist dogma.  I'm a Jew, and my religion
> specifies 613 obligations in some detail.  Some of these are obligations
> to my family, to my friends, to my community, and to G-d.  If you're
> interested in these duties, all of which derive from Scripture, there
> are some good translations of Maimonides around.  [...]
>
> ken perlow

Mr. Perlow misses the boat. The question is not what what ethical
philosophy he follows that imposes these obligations on HIM, but what
ethical philosophy he follows that imposes these obligations on US.
It's perfectly irrelevant to me what Mr. Perlow believes are his own
obligations to various people; I merely would like him to state his
argument that I (and the rest of society) are similarly bound...

As for obligations owed to strangers, my yuppie-designer-brain (if
any) recognizes but one: to refrain from unjustified aggression or
coercion against fellow humans. Anything more than that is simply
gilding the lily.

Michael C. Berch
ARPA: mcb@lll-tis-b.ARPA
UUCP: {ihnp4,dual,sun}!lll-lcc!styx!mcb