Deontological Ethics vs Pragmatic Ethics

[Xerographica]

Here's an excerpt from a blog entry I just posted on Deontological Ethics vs Pragmatic Ethics...

Most of us are familiar with the story of the blind men and the elephant. Right now we are all like blind men arguing over the scope of government. In order to accurately discern what the scope of government should actually be...each and every taxpayer should be allowed to add their unique perspective to the puzzle. This would simply involve giving taxpayers the freedom to spend their individual taxes on the government functions that they believe to be truly necessary.

 

[MKULTRABOY]

Unfortunately the consequences of allowing people to choose where to allocate their taxes could be risky, destabilizing and in worst case a threat to the security of the US as a country and a whole. Most optimistically it would be absofukinglutely awesome.

Nice post.

 

[Xerographica]

MKULTRABOY, I'd be really interested in hearing specific examples of worst case scenarios.

 

[MKULTRABOY]

Essentially when individuals seek to maximize their personal good they may not allocate their taxes to services that serve the best communal interests of the state, for example we can pose an absurdity that the population goes dippy hippy in some mad social trend and the military is bankrupted. What your post says opens up a massive pandoras box, or possibly can of worms. All in all when it's good it's good but when it's bad its terrible. The people literally may not know whats good for them in many cases and the scope of government may be better left to individuals who specialize in the fields of knowledge involved in what the government regulates or spends on. Most optimistically the results could be quite great too.

 

[Xerographica]

MKULTRABOY, well...it feels a little absurd disputing an example that you admit is absurd...but here's a little food for thought from my first polisci textbook... "Roughly one out of every six Americans currently works for a private firm that receives federal contracts. Roughly two-thirds of those contracts came from the Department of Defense, which accounted for over $120 billion in 1997, and roughly two-thirds of those defense dollars went to just five firms: Lockheed Martin (airplanes), McDonnel Douglas (airplanes), Northrup Grumann (airplanes), General Motors (tanks and trucks), and Ratheon (weapons systems)." You'd figure that all the people whose livelihoods depend on defense contracts would probably remind us of the value of national defense funding...on the very unlikely chance that the rest of us managed to forget.

The individuals who specialize in the various fields of knowledge probably wouldn't keep that knowledge to themselves should taxpayers be allowed to directly allocate their taxes.

Can you offer any more realistic examples?

 

[MKULTRABOY]

You can apply the point as a hypothetical analogy to anything really.