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Comment by MiroF | Hacker News Reader

Most theories of the good hold that you are certainly entitled to things just for being born - take your life for instance.

Your alternative conception is far outside the norm.

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Fundamentally, your retort to the parent’s (poorly expressed and now dead) reply is sound, though I believe they might have been circling the concept of negative vs. positive rights. It’s an interesting topic and one worthy of debate, though sadly that debate has become fraught with emotion and passion, to the point that it’s on a level with abortion - it just can’t be discussed in most circles.

Maybe, although I believe that it's not too hard to have a basic argument about negative v. positive rights. Some people debate and feel passionately about the things they believe. As long as they're making arguments, I am not sure what the problem is.

I oftentimes find that good debates are more often disrupted by the person who insists on this mythic ideal of "unemotional" & civic & rational debate than the person who feels strongly about the issue.

"Most theories of the good hold that you are certainly entitled to things just for being born - take your life for instance."

Where can more information be found about "theories of the good"? What about this thing we call money - how much are we entitled to and from who?

Can anyone explain what the benefit is of living an existence feeling entitled to something tangible such as money?

Sure, you can examine moral and political philosophy. Nozick has some writing about it, Rawls does, Mill, etc. - it's a whole branch of thought.

The benefit of shaping society in a way that you think is good is that you end up with a better society.

I don't really think you're discussing in good faith, so I'll end it here - but I think this is a very interesting line of discussion.

I'm open to learning about moral and political philosophy. I will check out Nozick, Rawls and Mill - thanks for the pointers.

Meanwhile I am failing to grasp how feeling (worse yet acting) entitled to something (in this case money) from someone else or society at large is beneficial. Anyone I've ever met or interacted with IRL with this disposition is perpetually unfulfilled and extremely ungrateful for very gift of life they have been given.

Have you ever met a successful, happy, healthy and/or otherwise admirable individual who feels or acts entitled?

If we can acknowledge that societie's rewards aren't directly proportional to work ethic (Bezos works hard sure, but 5,000 times harder?), and yet everyone participates in a society that enables these rewards. Think of every civil service, roads, consumers buying your stuff, the fact that brigands aren't simply looting your factories and stores etc. Fortunes are built on the shoulders of everyone who does and has contributed to society.

So if you accept the above statement we can discuss what people are entitled to coming from the same place. If you don't accept the above (many don't, not judging) then we we'll be stuck on that and won't get any further discussing entitlement.

It's not about doling out money to lazy people. That's become a bit of a trope. The American dream is dead. If you are born into poverty then the odds of you getting out of poverty, regardless of how hard you work, is vanishingly low. Sure there are lazy people but I would argue that it's impractical to try and figure out a system that weeds them out at scale, and then you're stuck with half assed policy that does nothing or benefits a bunch of smart greedy pricks instead.

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