[lbo-talk] cushy life/strict equality

Dwayne Monroe idoru345 at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 27 07:49:47 PST 2005


Luke:

There's no easy way to seperate needs and wants, and even if you do so in a halfway plausible manner (which I doubt is possible), why should the "need" of one necessarily override the wants of many? To my mind, making literature available and understandable to millions of people is more important than saving the lives of a handful.

============

Hmmmm.

What a head-scratchingly odd choice: literature for millions or saving the lives of a handful? This inspires a new drinking game -- terrible choices no one will ever have to make from now, till the sun goes nova.

Which is more critical?...

* Saving your child's life or making sure every driver has safe tires?

* Providing warm coats to all the world's cold people or rescuing kindly old Mrs McGillicutty from a burning building?

* Slapping that ass or ending tyranny on earth?

...

And regarding needs and wants...

Oh, it's not really so hard to parse is it?

To be:

a.) alive

b.) healthy

c.) pleasant to the nose

I need regular access to water.

To live the way I'd like to live I'd need regular access to democracy, Armani, smoothly paved roads and lusty women.

Needs, for the most part, are really quite basic (including the emotional needs for trusted companions and good times). Wants are where the complexity starts to mount. They can be identified by their abstraction from the fundamentals.

.d.

-- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.7.4 - Release Date: 1/25/2005



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list