Wow. This piece really sums up why I am losing my mind these days. I’m one of the idiots who played by the rules, and am taking an absolute beating for doing it.
That’s not my point. I’d like to point this quote out:
If it is wrong, for example, to run up a huge personal debt without having the means for paying it off, then it’s still wrong even if 100 or 100,000 other people are doing it,” he says
This was in response to the possibility that some home owners that were thrifty would seek to take part in government backed mortgage adjustment programs. I’ll just remind readers that I agree with this guy’s point. But I am not sure he understands how it extends to the rest of our lives.
- If a single family cannot afford to purchase health insurance, or the amount of health care that they wish, then 100 of those people, or 1,000 of those people cannot also afford it if we call them “society.”
- If it is wrong for one person to steal from another – to extract resources at the point of a gun – is it not also wrong when 10 of them band together to do it and call themselves a gang? Is it not also wrong when 1,000 of them band together to do it and call themselves the Mafia? Is it not also wrong when even more get together and call themselves, “the government?”
Yes, this is a simplification, but a useful one – we are talking about morals, not about expected economic growth.