[lbo-talk] On the Threat from Religion

John Thornton jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Fri Nov 21 10:56:50 PST 2008



> What's the difference, really? Sometimes I think that Marx's hostility
> towards moral or ethical judgments comes from contempt for the
> admittedly sentimental positions of utopians and a desire instead to
> be scientific. But if you don't have some moral or ethical objection
> to exploitation, why do you have a problem with capitalism?
>
> Doug

My objection to capitalism isn't necessarily grounded in ethical concerns. If my goal is to leximin the level of contentment for myself and those around me then opposition to capitalism is a rational response. The easiest way to leximin my opportunities, and therefore my happiness, is to leximin everyones opportunities and capitalism definitely does not do this and is incapable of doing so. Socialism is capable of doing this and so I support socialism. However I support a specific type of socialism where every individual is given an equal share of humanities output (when corrected, as far as is practicable, for differing physical endowments) regardless of their contribution. No need to cite any moral or philosophical objections. Plus capitalists are evil fuckers.

John Thornton



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