There's no distributive reason why everyone shouldn't be given a key to an apartment and a small but adequate allowance at 18, with an option to trade up on evidence of talent and effort. (However those are measured.)
I agree. Few people even in America will argue against public education. The whole idea behind public education was that it would give all Americans an equal start regardless of their background. Now we live in an age where a HS diploma is necessary but having nothing more is like the equivalent of grandma only having an 8th grade education. It's simply not enough. I suspect people without any college or vocational education are more likely to be the same people who will need the social safety nets we resent people for needing. So if we really think all people deserve an equal start regardless of their background, and if we hate having to come to the rescue of the destitute, why not collectively invest the money up front so that much fewer people find themselves reliant on public resources later on? Because poor people are ungrateful freeloaders. Dontcha know? They are just going to live off us like vampires and contribute nothing to society. This is the moral judgement we pass. Forget that the security of a garanteed -however small- income and a roof over one's head probably goes a long way toward preventing people from turning to crime and substance abuse in order to survive. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
I grew up in culture that exemplified that moral judgement, and believed it myself for half my life. And yet, I've come to wonder: what does Paris Hilton contribute to society, other than a few punch lines for the evening talk shows? What has Richard Melon Scaife contributed, other than catapulting the self-fulfilling propaganda that justifies his wealth and privilege? Who are the vampires, and who are the victims? Somewhere in cyberspace, the ghost of de Chardin is smiling.
In today's celebrity obsessed culture people think she is interesting and her behaviour is newws. It keeps people in jobs in magazines and on telly cos other less-famous airheads want to read about such people.
It just shows that it's easy to get rich if you're already rich. keep to the Fen Causeway
