Thats a very good point, but I have a question (A little bit off topic). Suppose we are not free beings, suppose our actions are totally determined and that our option to choose is unexistant, in other words, pure determination. Many people defend this, I personally don't, I think human beings are free, but if they were not...do you think we could blamne them for their actions? It would kind of bring the whole concept of justice down, but it's the idea I have every time I read the opinions of a determinist. --Shadow Nexus

It makes no sense to look at it that way. If things are determined due to some mystical otherworldly "fate", it wouldn't matter. Our reality and our perception of it would be the same. Did I type this because I was free to choose to do so, or because I was fated to? In terms of myself and my world, it doesn't matter. Both situations are the same to me.

Even if determinism has a worldly cause, like physics, I don't see that it means anything. It's a different context. Thought and choice and pain don't exist on the level of atoms and sub-atomic particles, and that's the realm where determinism would exist. Choice is a human-level abstraction, maybe, but it's what has meaning when dealing with morality. Even if choice is an illusion, that illusion is what matters in the context of moral decisions.

My idea of fairness is: no one should have a beach house and a condo and a place in the city until everybody has a place to live. No one should sleep tranquilly at night until everybody has enough to eat. No one should get cosmetic plastic surgery until everybody has access to basic proper healthcare. --Anaralia

If someone is incapable of writing a computer program, for example, and I am capable of doing it due to four years of hard work in college (and incurring thousands of dollars of financial debt, in the process), I should be forbidden from being compensated for my work because someone else is unwilling or unable to do it? I should rather be paid the same as a dirt-shoveler or Taco Bell employee, just to equal things out? More specifically, if I make more money than someone else, more of my money should be taken away to give to poor/disabled people? The harder you work, the more you're punished?

If I work harder, I should be given more reward. If I'm capable of doing something most people can't do, I should be compensated for it. The fact that other people in the world aren't as smart as I am, or as hard-working, or whatever, shouldn't limit my potential, or cause me to incur penalties in life; otherwise what is the purpose of even putting effort into anything? I was tempted to use the word "less fortunate", but I decided not to, because fortune has nothing to do with anything. My family was/is poor as dirt, and if I'm ever a success it will be my doing. Everyone is capable of being successful if they work for it. Maybe not everyone is capable of being super-rich, but everyone is capable of doing pretty well for themselves.

I'm in favor of helping people who are disabled, sure. I think people who are disabled get plenty of help as it is. My father is physically disabled in fact, and we survive. I don't think that helping the disabled requires that everyone in the country be poor. I don't think people having nice houses has anything to do with helping disabled people.

I don't think anyone is obligated to help poor people. That's slavery, like I said. It's nice to do it if you want to, but being obligated to do it is forcing the rich to be the slaves of the poor.