Does anyone else ever feel guilty about the benefits they were raised with?

[thewise1]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

Nah, I don't care to get so specific either.

Very simply, I feel that some people's parents simply fail them. And if you are failed by your parents, I have a hard time expecting you to make something out of your life. Many do, and that is fantastic. But many do not, and I do not blame them in any way.

I agree that parents play a huge role in an individual's success in life.

I do not think that if they fail you, you should be given a free pass. They can spend their life complaining about how their parents failed them (or the situation that arose from those circumstances, if they don't have enough insight to realize it was their parents that started them on that cycle), or they can spend their life trying to improve. One at least tries to solve the problem, the other will get nowhere and thus is a waste of time in my opinion.

This coming from a guy who did the former for awhile.

[kinggovernor]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

Guilt, the legitimacy of it, how it should be overcome?

It's not exactly ethics, though it's the closest term I could think of at the time

it you have guilt you should do things to help out those that you feel guilty about. Like volunteering at city high schools, reading programs or whatever.

[gene430]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

By the way, let it be known that this was NOT the direction I wanted this discussion to go in

I was hoping for more of an ethical discussion, not a "let's help the lazy poor people" thread

Let's take a minute and look at your questions in a different way. Do you think it would be fair to treat everyone equally and not allow anyone to get rich or poor, to keep everyone the same...equal?

Equality sounds like a nice word, but, think about it, it really depends on the situation. If I work 8 hours a day and you work 12 hours a day at the same job, same employer, etc. I would say we should be treated equally and get paid the same. Would you?

I think if everyone was treated equally and were forced to remain equal in all things that life would be terrible. We would be like a bunch of cows, all equal.

Face it, in an "equal" world, words like ambition, incentive, drive, determination, hope, desire,etc. would not exists. Human beings are spiritual, inquisitive, ingenius beings who have an internal desire to be individuals and to separate themselves from the masses by achievement, fame, money, spritual enlightment, etc. From the moment we are born we are in ways fighting not to be equal to everyone else.

Do you agree?

[7960]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

By the way, let it be known that this was NOT the direction I wanted this discussion to go in

I was hoping for more of an ethical discussion, not a "let's help the lazy poor people" thread

but, unless you're willing to renounce it all and start from scratch, there are no "ethics" behind a decision you didn't make. there's really not much else to talk about.

[A_C_E]

Originally Posted by gene430

Let's take a minute and look at your questions in a different way. Do you think it would be fair to treat everyone equally and not allow anyone to get rich or poor, to keep everyone the same...equal?

Equality sounds like a nice word, but, think about it, it really depends on the situation. If I work 8 hours a day and you work 12 hours a day at the same job, same employer, etc. I would say we should be treated equally and get paid the same. Would you?

I think if everyone was treated equally and were forced to remain equal in all things that life would be terrible. We would be like a bunch of cows, all equal.

Face it, in an "equal" world, words like ambition, incentive, drive, determination, hope, desire,etc. would not exists. Human beings are spiritual, inquisitive, ingenius beings who have an internal desire to be individuals and to separate themselves from the masses by achievement, fame, money, spritual enlightment, etc. From the moment we are born we are in ways fighting not to be equal to everyone else.

Do you agree?

Equality of opportunity != equality of results

I would never be in favor of a political system supporting equality of results. I merely favor real equality of opportunity, which I am not yet convinced exists in America.

[thewise1]

Originally Posted by A_C_E

Equality of opportunity != equality of results

I would never be in favor of a political system supporting equality of results. I merely favor real equality of opportunity, which I am not yet convinced exists in America.

In order to favor real equality of opportunity, it logically follows that you must favor real equality of results.

Why, you ask?

Because from generation to generation, one set of people will do more than the other, resulting in children that have more opportunity than others. One generation is all it takes to remove the absolute equality of opportunity because that generation will have varying success at life.

Imagine 5 families along a timeline. Pretend this scale is over a period of 100 years; and generation 1 is A, generation 2 is B, etc. The number of characters present for their generation denotes their economic success passed on to their children:

Family 1: AAAAAAABBCCCCDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Family 2: ABBCDDD
Family 3: AAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBCD
Family 4: ABBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Family 5: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The overall length of the family's line denotes the eventual position of the children (this also doesn't take into account children that piss away fortunes, it's very simplistic, as all good ASCII art is )

I hope this kind of demonstrates what I'm trying to explain. All 5 families started with equal opportunity, but the generations that followed had varying amounts to work with and there is no way around that unless everyone starts with nothing.