Quote:
you don't do anything, nor expect the government to on your behalf, to someone else that you wouldn't want done to you


Falling back on your usual bugaboos already?

Again, morality is not a good way to govern or solve anything but moral problems. What charities or causes you should support is a moral question, but our fiscal or domestic social policy are not.

Problem with a simplistic "do onto others" approach is that it implies that you exercise clear judgment, have access to all the relevant information and can impartially evaluate any situation. To further simplify this - our moral code is buggy. We rationalize, we act from bias, we favor in-groups, and we assign different importance to otherwise similar consequences based on a huge number of factors.

Here is another example for you:

We all like nice houses. I would like for someone to give me a zero-down mortgage for a house I am not qualified and could not afford if prices drop. My friend Bob, is a nice person, so I will use my position as a lending officer in the bank to give him such mortgage. I am sure he would do the same to me. Doing so doesn't harm anyone, I am sure he will pay it off eventually, after all house prices keep going up and up.

[Linked Image]