Are our Moral Standards in Society Degrading?

[Magpai]

Also, perhaps they believe the government a more effective agent of distribution than disparate charities.

Lol, sure, if you're willing to ignore all statistics on the matter.

[Elegiac]

Tell that to gay couples in states where gay marriage is still illegal. I suppose you think that's justified as well.

Government being a democracy does not mean it's justified to forcibly implement the morality of the 51%.

Civil rights issues and fiscal issues are two different breeds of animal, and not comparable.

[Magpai]

A rather specious analogy; you don't have a civil right to not be taxed.

No one's asking not to be taxed. It's just the easiest straw man for you to fall back on.

[Bad Ashe]

more and more young people growing up never NOT knowing the anonymous "say anything you want no matter how crude" environment of the internet.
i was sued last year for slapping one of my students.

thankfully once the judge had heard the full story i was aquitted. people have no respect for anything anymore.

[Magpai]

Civil rights issues and fiscal issues are two different breeds of animal, and not comparable.

They're both, according to you, a question of morality.

[Bigbamboozal]

I BLAME those very old people that are complaining, they failed to pass on those very values they respect. Just as I blame my generation for not bringing their kids up with the same respect and consideration we had to learn, the TV and console teaches kids more than most parents do nowadays.

depends on the parents tyvm.

OT: One word that helps you understand OP: media. A lot of other factors factor and whatnot, but the main drive behind everything that makes a normal person puke today, was driven by media.

[Speaknoevil]

more and more young people growing up never NOT knowing the anonymous "say anything you want no matter how crude" environment of the internet.
i was sued last year for slapping one of my students.

thankfully once the judge had heard the full story i was aquitted. people have no respect for anything anymore.

You have terrible punctuation for a teacher.
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You also have a username that implies a rude tone to your posts.

[semaphore]

Yes, but only because they were insanly high before.
It wasn't long ago you were considered a foul human being for masturbating

What's moral about throwing a hissy fit over something as natural as masturbating? Nothing.

[Seme]

Yes, but only because they were insanly high before.
It wasn't long ago you were considered a foul human being for masturbating, these days we're encouraged by our schools to "explore" our bodies, and thank logic for that!

Thank feck those days are gone, otherwise I'd have been regarded as a very foul human before I was even 15

[Magpai]

The "entitlement attitude" you are speaking of is in fact incredibly rare. Perhaps you can inform me as to why political discussions are relevant to that assertion.

The entitlement attitude, as you described it, exists in the same way that police beatings exist. They are incredibly rare, but when examples occur, they are made to appear much more common than they actually are.

That's such a blatant disregard for reality that I"m not even sure how to respond. People argue all the time that "others" are entitled to food, housing, healthcare and often luxuries at others' expenses.

[Deleted]

How "useful" my wealth is to me is not relevant in deciding whether it's okay to take it from me by force.

You drive on roads. you expect police protection. you would want the fire service to turn up if your house was on fire. you use the sewage system, you drink water from taps, you use electricity.

yes you pay bills for some of that, but a lot of the costs are paid for by public money.

If you lost your wealth for some reason, the state would support you. You pay taxes into a system when you can, and the system provides for you when you need it. The only way to design a tax system to behind the veil of ignorance, you have to do it without knowing what people will be like, you have to design a system that works, and that means those that have more, pay more. its teh only way it can work.

I am happy to do so, as I recognise the value of a society that works liket that> Its in my self interest to have a functioning economy, which means we need well educated people joining the employment pool, which means a well funded public education system for instance. Without taxes, and what they fund, you would likely not have weatlth to be "forceably" taken from you in any case.

[Deadvolcanoes]

Yes, they are, the moral degradation of our society is causing it to decline.

Such examples would include...

[semaphore]

i was sued last year for slapping one of my students.

thankfully once the judge had heard the full story i was aquitted.

Sounds like a horrible, biased, irresponsible, unqualified and probably imaginary judge.

[Elegiac]

No one's asking not to be taxed. It's just the easiest straw man for you to fall back on.

Then what are you complaining about, exactly?

[Magpai]

You're greedy because you place your own worth as highly above others as you do.

They're often the victims of circumstance. It's society taking your money, because you wouldn't give it up otherwise. The systems are far from perfect, but they are in place to protect people.
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You display a severe lack of empathy, I wonder if it's cynicism or ignorance.

You're damn right I consider myself worth more to myself than a stranger. You're not only too far up your high horse, you're also a hypocrite. If you really considered the lives of others equal to your own, you'd be out working for their good instead of arguing on the internet.

---------- Post added 2013-02-25 at 12:20 AM ----------

Then what are you complaining about, exactly?

Certain aspects of taxation, not all taxation, which you know damn well.

---------- Post added 2013-02-25 at 12:21 AM ----------

You drive on roads. you expect police protection. you would want the fire service to turn up if your house was on fire. you use the sewage system, you drink water from taps, you use electricity.

yes you pay bills for some of that, but a lot of the costs are paid for by public money.

If you lost your wealth for some reason, the state would support you. You pay taxes into a system when you can, and the system provides for you when you need it. The only way to design a tax system to behind the veil of ignorance, you have to do it without knowing what people will be like, you have to design a system that works, and that means those that have more, pay more. its teh only way it can work.

I am happy to do so, as I recognise the value of a society that works liket that> Its in my self interest to have a functioning economy, which means we need well educated people joining the employment pool, which means a well funded public education system for instance. Without taxes, and what they fund, you would likely not have weatlth to be "forceably" taken from you in any case.

I don't know why you addressed this to me as if I were complaining about police, roads or fire departments, or as if it was in any way relevant to what I said.

[Deleted]

Personally I think they are. To me it seems like moral standards were much higher in the past. Our ideas grow evermore provocative and degrading. Is it really a good thing to cast away traditional values?

And now I can finally understand why old people complain about the youths of today...

I blame Southpark.

If everybody keeps doing unto others as they would have them do by you, then I'm sure we'll be alright for another couple of decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality

[Deadvolcanoes]

That's such a blatant disregard for reality that I"m not even sure how to respond. People argue all the time that "others" are entitled to food, housing, healthcare and often luxuries at others' expenses.

That's not how you described the "entitlement attitude." You said:

other people owe me and that I'm entitled to what I want even at someone else's expense

That's going far beyond a persons right to food, healthcare, and shelter.

[semaphore]

Then what are you complaining about, exactly?

The aspect of taxation where the rich is taxed, clearly. There's nothing wrong with taxation unless it's taxing me!

[Speaknoevil]

You're damn right I consider myself worth more to myself than a stranger. You're not only too far up your high horse, you're also a hypocrite. If you really considered the lives of others equal to your own, you'd be out working for their good instead of arguing on the internet.

---------- Post added 2013-02-25 at 12:20 AM ----------



Certain aspects of taxation, not all taxation, which you know damn well.

I help people every day, this is personal time. I believe my words were: "You're greedy because you place your own worth as highly above others as you do."

There's nothing wrong with prioritizing yourself sometimes, but you have displayed a very skewed perspective on how these things should be balanced.
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[Mormolyce]

People have been saying this for over 2000 years at least. So there are two possibilities:

1) They are right and every generation is more immoral than the last. So cave men were some kind of moral gods who lived in a perfect utopia and by modern times we are basically moral plankton who live in a post-apocalytic chaos where we eat our mothers and blend babies for fun.

2) All humans believe that things are getting worse because of a kind of blinkered nostalgia that makes their childhood seem a lot better than it was, and the stories they are told by their parents and grandparents are influenced by their own nostalgia and similarly skip over the bad parts of their generations.

Which one do you think is more likely? Hint: it was only a few hundred years ago that we even got rid of SLAVERY.