tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807621660146365262.post8582356500538443110..comments2022-11-21T03:43:58.782-06:00Comments on Regardant les nuages: Politics and FaithUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807621660146365262.post-82860877386739103062007-06-09T22:25:00.000-06:002007-06-09T22:25:00.000-06:00You give me too much credit. I really know nothin...You give me too much credit. I really know nothing about politics, and even less about economics. I wishfully think I'm some sort of amateur philosopher, but I'm not even that really. <BR/><BR/>And of course that means I have ideals that I have no way of implementing. I suppose I ought to come down out of the clouds long enough to consider how such things could really be done, but that's so much more difficult than just thinking about it. I admit my failure on that account. I listened to the candidates to see where their hearts were at, and I paid much less attention to whether or not their hearts could really achieve what they wanted.Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11095269766349024764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807621660146365262.post-71410404314535857822007-06-09T21:22:00.000-06:002007-06-09T21:22:00.000-06:00Heh, heh. Or else aim high, fall farther. ;-)I don...Heh, heh. Or else aim high, fall farther. ;-)<BR/><BR/>I don't really think I'm interested in assigning <EM>blame</EM> for poverty. That does not strike me as a helpful approach at all, and I believe that mercy is a moral obligation in any case.<BR/><BR/>But I do think that we have to be realistic about ways and means, recognizing that there's usually a lot more to poverty than a mere lack of money. <BR/><BR/>And also that government programs can have unintended consequences. For example, Edwards' push for a universal living wage and right to unionization might actually exacerbate extreme poverty by making it harder to find low-end employment at all. Some companies simply can't afford to pay as many people at $15/hour as they can at $6. And better-heeled companies could afford it but would send more jobs overseas instead. (Admittedly, that would alleviate poverty in the short term in Bangalore.)<BR/><BR/>But that's just my talking off the top of my head about an academic field that is not my own, so I should probably stop. You've done a much better job discussing politics than I'm about to do with economics.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807621660146365262.post-23216995681306899132007-06-09T08:33:00.000-06:002007-06-09T08:33:00.000-06:00Thanks for the links! I suppose I should have gue...Thanks for the links! I suppose I should have guessed that it could be found on youtube. And I know I'm being very idealistic to want to shoot for total elimination of poverty. I'm young, and I can have lofty (even unachievable) goals still. I'm not naive to see that as a realistic possibility, at least not in the near future. <B>But</B> it doesn't hurt to aim high, right? Aim high, miss high. If total elimination is the goal, then we won't be satisfied when we get half, we'll keep going. It's a goal that doesn't allow you to get complacent.<BR/><BR/>And I haven't reconciled the choice/luck egalitarian thing yet. How much of someone's misfortune is actually their own fault? There are so many factors it's hard to tell. Clearly choices should count, but there's a lot not in people's control (including their natural dispositions, how they were raised, etc). So it's a hard call. I suppose I'd rather err on the side of helping them anyway, just in case. But you're right, that's an important issue to think about too.Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11095269766349024764noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4807621660146365262.post-68487142349945275452007-06-09T08:14:00.000-06:002007-06-09T08:14:00.000-06:00YouTube has the video in six parts:1 ... 2 ... 3 ....YouTube has the video in six parts:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsR-mDUvdoU" REL="nofollow">1 ...</A> <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9jYnkQPuCU" REL="nofollow">2 ...</A> <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW1UYFmtyrA" REL="nofollow">3 ...</A> <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poLJJ_kH3Iw" REL="nofollow">4 ...</A> <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M_J8EYE3Xg" REL="nofollow">5 ...</A> <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAmVaJAk7E" REL="nofollow">6 ...</A><BR/><BR/>I must confess that I am highly skeptical of our ability to "eliminate" poverty. There are, after all, thousands of <A HREF="http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:kdLfaMoDKlwJ:www.feantsa.org/files/indicators_wg/ETHOS2006/200613123.pdf+homeless+in+Sweden&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us" REL="nofollow">homeless in Sweden</A>, which ought to have solved such problems by now if any country can (at least if any can do so through government action). <BR/><BR/>I'm not saying the poor <EM>deserve</EM> their lot -- by no means -- but a lot of poverty <EM>does</EM> result from self-destructive behavior (as well as the selfishness of other people, which is just as difficult to remedy through government action). I'm pretty sure that eliminating poverty would require eliminating drug abuse, alcoholism, illegitimacy, and illiteracy, for starters. And we haven't exactly seen that government action is an effective solution to most of those problems.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com