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Subject: 
Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Wed, 24 May 2000 01:36:08 GMT
Viewed: 
709 times
  
I'm not sure why you two continue to intermittantly duke it out.  Larry thinks
you're an evil commie, and you think he's an evil...umm...I can't think of a
good word...robber baron?

In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Ed Jones writes:
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes:
[snip]

Do people need to take (moral/financial) responsibility for
things that they choose to do, things that entail risk, or
don't they?

Ah, Hobson's choice number one.

How so?

However, your question (and your eternal preaching on this
subject) makes the asumption that everyone knows all the
risks involved in everything they do.

That's not really true.  Obviously I agree with Larry on many things, but I'm
not going to be rude.  I truely would like to understand your side of this
discussion.  First, what if Larry's question was presented with just the "Do
people need to take (moral/financial) responsibility for things that they
choose to do" part?

Do you, in the general case, believe that people need to take responsibility
for themselves more than we see in society?

Do you agree (and this is why I simplified Larry's question) that every action
-- and even inaction -- includes risk?  Some of it can reasonably be foreseen,
and some can't.

I'm assuming that the answers are yes to both.  (If not, I guess we're done.)
Now, the government as an absorber or moderator of risk is basically insurance.
Right?  Insurance is a good thing.

Why must we all be forced into a particular insurance system, or to have
insurance at all?  If AIDS insurance is something that you value, go for it.
I'll pass.  And I'll take the consequences.

I know that one of your big points is that the early sufferers of HIV infection
didn't know.  That's true, and there wouldn't be any AIDS insurance available
to them.  But general medical insurance would have been.  I have a strong
health-care insurance.  I pay out the nose for extra services beyond the basics
from my wife's employer.

But personal insurance isn't exactly the main point, since this all started
talking about research dollars.  Why not have the people who're funding the
research decide what should be researched?  Really, no one would then have a
reasonable complaint.  Right?  You and your associates want disease X
researched, so you fund it.  I want disease Y researched, so I fund that.  (Or
more likely, I don't, because I'm funny about medical research on animals.)

Merely assuming that someone should know the risks of something
they do does not equate to them fully knowing and understanding
the risks.

I don't think that people should (or more to the point, can) know or understand
all the risks of their behaviors.  It's none of my business.  But _I_ should
know that there are risks lurking everywhere and I try to provide for my
future.

Is it appropriate in a mixed economy to
carry out an cost benefit analysis of various social programs and make the
decision of which to fund based on which apparently have the most benefit?

YES.

So then, do you have a problem with the way Larry and I think that those
cost-benefit analyses should be carried out?  I suppose objectivity (to
whatever extent it exists) needs to be ardently worked toward.  How can we do
so?

thanks,

Chris



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
 
(...) engineer of the ME generation. :') (...) Simple, its not a black and white, yes or no, question. (...) It doesn't change a thing. A very simple example - if, according to you and LAR, people should "take (moral/financial) responsibility for (...) (24 years ago, 24-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?
 
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Larry Pieniazek writes: [snip] (...) that (...) Ah, Hobson's choice number one. I'll choose the LAR method - coin flip says - NO. However, your question (and your eternal preaching on this subject) makes the asumption (...) (24 years ago, 22-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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