Subject:
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Re: Personal Responsibility (was: Re: Why is AIDS such a big deal?)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sat, 27 May 2000 15:04:04 GMT
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Viewed:
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1012 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, James Simpson writes:
>
> > I do mostly agree with you - victims are rarely 100%, well...victims.
>
> Well, I do think that people are victims. I just also think that they bear
> responsibility for their situations. And I largely think that people are
> victims because they don't see to it that they won't be.
Agreed.
> > Often
> > some act of indiscretion or carelessness is a contributing factor, but...isn't
> > that just the nature of life?
>
> Yes. And as such, people need to deal with it.
Yes, but life is a terribly complex and complicated thing. People must deal
with their mistakes, but often it is not reasonable or right to make them 100%
responsible.
> > I have a friend who just got 2 fingers ripped off
> > in a machine at his factory, through no real fault of his own.
>
> Bummer. Did he get them put back on? A friend of mine in high school
> graduated ahead of me and became a machinist. He had a mill eat a finger and
> it was destroyed, so they couldn't put it back. He said that if there had been
> anything to put back on, they could have and probably returned function, if not
> sensation. I bet building with our favorite toy is harder sans two fingers.
Regarding Lego, unfortunatly, I have not made yet made a disciple out of him.
My friend had his fingers caught in a stretcher. All of the flesh was pulled
off of the bones (curiously, no bones were broken). His fingers were a total
loss. In the State of Texas, our legislature seems to be in the pocket of the
insurance industry. If a company offers worker's compensation, then said
company is immune from civil litigation when a worker is injured. This case
cried out for a lawsuit: The company had received numerous complaints as to the
hazards of this machine, and the day after the accident, a bunch of safety
equipment was installed. Because the law here allows companies to be basically
bullet-proof, the company had no economic incentive to install the safety
equipment. Why shut down the operation briefly and install costly safety
equipment when all you have to do is throw the injured employee a bone (no pun
intended) if and when an accident occurs. It was straight-up cost-benefit
analysis.
> But, be that as it may be, let's examine your "no fault of his own" claim. Had
> he performed that job before? Why didn't the machine rip his fingers off the
> first time? Is it possible that he let his guard down just that one time?
> Could he have stayed up late the night before? Maybe a fork-lift was passing
> behind him and it startled him and he reached somewhere he shouldn't have?
> etc. And ultimately...
>
> > he made the decision to work there
Agreed. He is partly responsible because he did not refuse to work on unsafe
equipment when his job responsibilities were reassigned. But, in this
particular incident, the company really bears the great bulk of negligence. So
what?, though. They'll never have to pay him a dime over and above the pittance
he'll get from worker's comp.
>
> > but life is fraught with hazards. I
> > just don't think that we can level judgment against someone who has failed to
> > remove 100% of risk from their life circumstances.
>
> And I don't want to level judgement against anyone for that. I'm just saying
> that's reality. And everyone needs to determine where they stand on risk
> control. Living to eliminate risk completely is akin to building a prison
> around oneself. But totally ignoring risk is stupid.
Agreed again.
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