 |
|
David Floyd
|
|
The bottom of a large bottle of beer
Jan 1970
time: 05:34
|
|
*shrug* Things like this just goes to show that private charitable donations can be an effective means of helping others in need, and, given the opportunity, people WILL donate money for charitable causes. Without income taxes, donations would likely be higher - the presence of income taxes, Social Security taxes, etc., is the entire reason why I refuse to donate money. I already AM "donating", at gunpoint.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
Az
|
 |
MACEDONIA - It's the name of the sovereign country to the north of Greece
Apr 2000
time: 07:34
|
|
quote:
Utility is not simply happiness. Didn't you just get a degree in economics? |
It is in the ethical sense. I don't know what you econ jocks mean, in your lingo. 
quote:
"Altruistic" people are simply people whose utility function includes other people's utility function. Their happiness is linked to other people's. It's not that difficult.. |
"includes"? how does it do that?  Again, do you really think that he is happier now than if he would keep the money?  maybe there is some chance of him being happier right now, however, in two weeks, that theoretical margin has no chance of staying, since the material burden would more than cancel it. in a year, that little dot of happiness would be invisible compared to the mass of negative utility that would exist in all that concerns with his finances.
"utility" for a human being is defined as his own happiness. Making people happy may increase it, but it's not a simple addition. For example, feeling good about making someone happy last for two weeks. ( And you get the utility by the "happiness felt by person at a particular moment times the time that happiness lasted" . )
Having almost 2 million bucks in the bank might not make you feel that good ( and I say that this is not true, as well), but it will make you feel that way for more time.
In short, what people want generally, is happiness, and just that. however, they're able to transcend over doing what they want and being considerate of what other people want. saying that they cannot is just BAMing, and saying that in that case happiness is not what the people want is assuming that people do what they want to, unless coherced into doing something else.
|
|
| |
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:34.
Apolyton Time is 00:34. |
top of page
|
| archivepost |
|
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
25-07-2004 17:54
to the selfish bastard who only wanted to derive satisfaction from helping others 
.
|