One may forsee and make a judgement on the the intentional consequences of your actions, but not the unintentional.
May I recommend "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt, if you are interested in that kind of thing.
I’m not 100% convinced of what you meant to say but as I read this I totally disagree. People often do terrible things unthinkingly. They seemingly are unaware of the consequences of their actions. But if they had thought for one minute those consequences would easily have been foreseeable. That’s why we have different degrees of murder. But they’re all murder. And you go to jail for all of them.
Socialist policies are perfect examples of this. Rents are too high? Restrict rental rates. Twenty years later there are no rentals. Gee! No one could have anticipated that! In Canada there is an elderly politician fighting the mandates saying they are against the Charter of Rights. He was one of the writers of the Charter. NO! They are fully in line with the Charter. Which gives governments tons of loopholes to work around it. Enshrined in an unchangeable document. At the time of its writing I was young and naive and I was outraged. As were many others. But we were a tiny minority. I said at the time ‘as soon as we have elected a tyrant our rights vanish’. It took 40 years, but it happened.
All your examples- which are good ones- are examples of people pulling a lever as opposed to not doing anything to disrupt a "natural" pre-existing system.
I'm reminded of the adage "don't tear down a fence until you find out exactly why it was there in the first place."
I agree that intent may play a role in how we decide to morally evaluate behavior, but I argue that it is CHOOSING TO ACT to interfere or change a state makes you truly culpable when the consequences results in harm- no matter what your intentions were.
One may forsee and make a judgement on the the intentional consequences of your actions, but not the unintentional.
May I recommend "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt, if you are interested in that kind of thing.
I’m not 100% convinced of what you meant to say but as I read this I totally disagree. People often do terrible things unthinkingly. They seemingly are unaware of the consequences of their actions. But if they had thought for one minute those consequences would easily have been foreseeable. That’s why we have different degrees of murder. But they’re all murder. And you go to jail for all of them.
Socialist policies are perfect examples of this. Rents are too high? Restrict rental rates. Twenty years later there are no rentals. Gee! No one could have anticipated that! In Canada there is an elderly politician fighting the mandates saying they are against the Charter of Rights. He was one of the writers of the Charter. NO! They are fully in line with the Charter. Which gives governments tons of loopholes to work around it. Enshrined in an unchangeable document. At the time of its writing I was young and naive and I was outraged. As were many others. But we were a tiny minority. I said at the time ‘as soon as we have elected a tyrant our rights vanish’. It took 40 years, but it happened.
All your examples- which are good ones- are examples of people pulling a lever as opposed to not doing anything to disrupt a "natural" pre-existing system.
I'm reminded of the adage "don't tear down a fence until you find out exactly why it was there in the first place."
I agree that intent may play a role in how we decide to morally evaluate behavior, but I argue that it is CHOOSING TO ACT to interfere or change a state makes you truly culpable when the consequences results in harm- no matter what your intentions were.
Re: Canada *Eyes are opened now, what a disaster! You said it perfectly.
Foreseen consequences can't be unintended.