MrktMkr1986
That's helpful...
"Oh I'm sorry for your pain but... *shrugs* I just don't feel like helping to pay for it."
You keep cutting this apart from its other half: "I appreciate your concern, but that's life. I'll get by." Of course I appear to be a monster since you repeatedly imply that nobody is willing to take responsibility for their own lives.
How can anyone be so detached???
Because I expect to shoulder my own burdens. I don't cry out at the injustice of life when I see somebody richer than I or smarter than I or prettier than I or stronger than I or more talented than I.
I've played the hand I was dealt. It was not a terrible hand at all but many have had better. I work for what I need and want and have ignored what I'm unwilling or unable to work for.
I don't see it as society's job to protect me from calamity, be it naturally random or self-induced. I was given life - I've got nothing else I can ask for, let alone expect or
demand. It's up to me to survive it.
I save money instead of spending it all. I'm reasonably careful and prudent in most of my buying decisions. I buy life and disability and health insurance and I budget for things they don't cover. I invest for my retirement. I plan for my future and allow contingency for things over which I have no control. I keep enough money in the bank to go without a job for a minimum of 90 days.
I could go out this afternoon and buy a nice car for myself. But I drive a well-worn, 10-year-old Neon that needs paint. It does its job and doesn't need to be replaced. I live within my means.
In short, I think ahead. I don't expect and don't want anybody to do that for me.
If a tsunami hit the East Coast and wiped out this part of the world, yes I would gratefully accept immediate disaster-relief aid.
Dan and I have both already acknowledged the worth of emergency services. I contribute to several charities and I willingly contributed to tsunami relief. But after the immediate need of dry clothes and a few days' food I've already got contingency plans and insurance to reurn my family to its feet. I don't feel it is society's job to do that for me, just because it's easy to assign that responsibility to everybody while ignoring the fact that "everybody" is nothing but a collection of individuals just like me.
Let me tell you a little story:
In the late '80s I lived in St. Louis. During '87 and '88 there was prolonged drought in that area. We had very little rain, crops were difficult to grow, and the Mississippi's water level fell dramatically. It was impossible to move most cargo up and down the river.
Farmers - both small family farms and huge agribusinesses - lobbied hard for, and got, a huge relief package from the government in order to cover their losses and crop failures. This, of course, in addition to the subsidies they were already taking to keep prices up. "Society" paid to insulate these farmers from the circumstances of their own lives.
Someone in the government finally noticed that another group was being hit hard by the drought - river tug operators. River tugs also run the gamut from large logistics firms to small owner-operator families (just like trucking) who have their entire lives invested in a single boat (some even live aboard the tug). Yet these people hadn't said a word, hadn't hired lobbyists, hadn't written letters, etc.
The government took it upon themselves to offer the operators relief money, both individually and through their professional association. Almost unanimously, it was rejected. Most seemed surprised anyone would even consider the idea. The official response from the river tug operators' association ran along the lines of "Thanks anyway, but we consider the recent difficulties as part of the nature of being in this business. When there's too much rain the river's too fast to navigate; when there's not enough rain the river's too shallow. This cycle hasn't changed in some time and so we've learned to expect bad conditions now and then." Of course it was more formally worded, but that was the gist of it.
Bad stuff happens. I'll pitch in during emergencies and I'll accept emergency aid. Note the word
emergency there. An 'emergency' is something sudden, drastic, and unexpected.
But I don't see how it's more moral to expect every person to be responsible for every
other person in the world on a chronic, life-long basis.
I don't want "society" to be responsible for my survival. I would never expect some individual to support me, no matter how wealthy. Society is nothing but individuals - why would I expect or want to have the power of slavery over many individuals if I don't want it over one?
The altruistic 'ideal' renders us all as slave to and master of others combined. I find that frankly horrifying. How much cleaner and better that we each be our
own masters, and there are no slaves at all!
it may even be partialy true ...but you try to tell him his taxes cant go towards his health instead of a space shuttle. before you can change anything you have to at least get elected. 
