When all externalities are priced, the virtuous option will also be the cheapest option
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This doesn't make paying the current premium virtuous if one later has to ask for financial help.
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I think that is very situation dependent, and if help is indeed asked for later, that is a separate event whose virtue has to be judged separately. It's a very generic observation, not a critique. Any choice you make now might cause future choices with different virtue calculus.
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I could pay a premium for free range eggs and then later ask taxpayers to bail me out when I can't make rent. Equally, I might eat commercial eggs now and then later discover the conditions of factory farming and go ask a priest for help dealing with moral crisis.
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There's always consequences of all choices that may require going for people who made different choices. It's their choice then whether to give it, and under what conditions. Taxation aggregates and socializes this so that we all get some slack for our decisions.
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If you, for eg. have a bias towards self-reliance, your choices may be robust to some consequences, but you may create harder choices for others (including chickens if you grant them personhood). That's the definition of a negative externality.
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Power is not having to deal with the negative externalities of your own choices. It's okay to seek power, but it shouldn't be confused with virtue. You may act in ways that never require you to ask for help, but you might still act in ways that force others to. Moral hazard.
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This is my basic problem with libertarian virtue ethics focused on 'sovereign individual' type thinking. It often conflates power and virtue, and using power to force harder choices on others for personal responsibility. I'm fine with darwinist competition so long as you own it.
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"that may require going for people who made different choices" --> "that may require going for help to people who made different choices
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Everything you say is reasonable. The point of the thread your post prompted is to point out that there are two deeply conflicting worldviews underneath. I think "the everything is interconnected and may be meaningless so let's just be kind" perspective is getting too much play.
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Possibly. I think the reverse has been true for the last few years: “pursue self interest and fuck you to everything else, markets magically handle all interconnections even if everybody with any power behaves like an asshole”
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I agree that's self-serving bs too:
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There are two major sources of problems: abuse of power and insufficient individual competence, integrity, and motivation.
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I’m very wary of competence as virtue. I’m fairly competent at surviving but I’m under no illusions about the difficulty level of the version of the ‘survival problem’ I face. I couldn’t handle the chicken farmer problem probably.
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