

The Handwriting on the Wall - hhm
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/handwritingwall

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mynameishere
Rank idiocy.

A nation that exceeds its natural carrying capacity (like Japan) has to trade
for food, or the deficit will result in hunger. Yes, giving them food will
temporarily work, but it will make the situation worse through time--which is
exactly what many people want, as it perpetuates foolish aid habits, to
preserve their do-gooder non-profit jobs.

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falsestprophet
The correct answer is hanging the King.

~~~
mwerty
True, but that was an extremely lousy way to poll people. Everyone is going to
be a saint in public.

Edit: I just wanted to add that I would totally have sacrificed everything to
save those 10 people.

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mrtron
Sacrificed everything to save those 10 because:

a) You would hope they would do the same, and if everyone does this, the end
result is the best possible outcome

or

b) You are an unselfish person

Also, are you willing to donate all the money you have above what you need to
survive to help others?

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mwerty
c) because other people are reading this.

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CBurns
One wonders why "we" have the $30,000 a year to give in the first place.
Perhaps if there was no food at all we could all starve and morality could be
had by all.

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BrandonM
That is totally bogus and is a huge part of the problem in today's society.
Instead of blaming the true culprit (the king), we expect the innocent to
sacrifice themselves. Injustice occurs when sacrifice is demanded, not when
truly free trade is in place. By buying that widescreen TV, I'm giving all
those people who build that TV a job. Doesn't that help to end world hunger?

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icky
> By buying that widescreen TV, I'm giving all those people who build that TV
> a job. Doesn't that help to end world hunger?

Yes, for the subset of countries that has their shit together enough to
manufacture and export TVs.

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andreyf
If anyone is inspired by this to give people the opportunities we take for
granted, I think Acumen Fund (<http://www.acumenfund.org/>) has the best plan
for using money wisely to help long-term solutions for the world's poor.

~~~
mooneater
Also see <http://www.kiva.org/>

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tomjen
The correct answer: The king is wrong, but his actions are his responsibility,
not yours so you are not guilty of murder nor should you sacrifice yourself.

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DanielBMarkham
Anybody who buys into this needs to do a self-check on their critical-thinking
skills.

First, as others have pointed out, the King is responsible for his actions,
not you. That means in every one of those scenarios, it's better to just take
your stuff and keep it. Any King that set up such a cruel situation is not
likely to keep his word anyway.

Second, it might be reasonable in the abstract to make some kind of concession
to help other people, but that's in the abstract. Look at it this way - I
might choose to give 20 bucks to a bum on the street, or I might not. There
are lots of factors that come into play, and there is no universal rule
involved.

Finally, there's a neat bit of jujitsu that happens, he switches from asking a
question about what _you_ might or might not do in a weird situation to a
general principle about what _others_ should do. Last I checked, we aren't in
the business of ganging up on our neighbors to impose our morality on them.
It's perfectly fine to save your life and let the others die. It might be
immoral, it might be bad, disgusting, shameful, sinful, yucky -- pick your
adjective. But that's the beauty of freedom. Without that ability to chose,
there's nothing moral in the choice anyway. If you start adding up and
subtracting lives here and there, you can justify about anything you want to.

It's just a dishonest story. Hunger does not exist because I choose to live a
free and productive life. It exists because political systems are broken. The
fact that we feed people by acting selfishly is a tough thing to grasp, but
once you get it, you realize that it's about a billion times better than just
giving a guy a fish.

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curi
Did Aaron really have to lie to us? If he has such a good cause, won't the
truth suffice?

Also the reason so many people starve to death isn't really lack of money.
It's more political repression keeping money away from them, socialism,
barriers to free trade, that kind of thing.

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imsteve
I've read that the biggest problem in many cases is corruption, and not just
at the highest levels.

