Consequentialism Options

[*Steven*]

Ends justifies the means.

[Spirited Away]

1. I'm not saying totally disregard the minorities. I'm just tired of things aimed specifically at minorities who they assume are incapable of handling themselves, such as affirmative action, but I created another thread for that a while back. If we're all about equality, how come they can make some racial joke about whites and it be hilarious (funny to me too) but should a white person make a joke about someone non-white and their race, then it would be heavy racism and that person would be shunned by society. For instance, "n****r guy."

Well, I don't disagree with you about AA. However, we can't use focus on that alone. Recall the bigger picture of American history and you'll see the essentiality to recognize the needs of minorities (eg. religious persecution, women's rights, civil rights movement... etc. But you know, "minority" can mean anything from the wealthy class to race, so let's not put too much emphasis on racial minority.

Anyway, our Founding Fathers never intended for the majority to have absolute power though. They set up a system where there are power checks all over the place so that no one entity is absolute because they understand the human tendency to be corrupt with power. At least, that's their intentions.


2. People taking advantage of the system does affect me. It takes funding from the government that could be better used for other things, and because they're leeching this money my taxes are raised. Also I'm not one to bitch about tax raises if they have a good intention. I know that taxes are a major income for the government and that without it we would be not what we are today (just imo).

Give me an example of how this will affect you. I understand that it annoys you (because it annoys me when people abuse the syste), but I can't quite put my finger on exactly how it affects your making a living or getting what you want in life.

As for taxes, the majority of it goes towards legitimate spending for you and me, if not everyone else in the equation. The ones that truly leech tax money (like illegal immigrants) are breaking a bunch of laws anyway (includng moral laws) and you know that America does draw the line there. The answer to why taxes increase vary from state to state as they all have different needs, however, the vote and needs of the MAJORITY are also one of the reasons why taxes increase. Have you look into that? Also, let's not forget that increase in military spending would affect taxes more so than minority services. There are so many other factors that majorly affect tax increases.

3. "To hell with everyone" may not be American today, but it's certainly an attitude we adopted on our way to where we are. It was the expansion and wellbeing of America that mattered. If we thought the Japanese could pose a possible threat, we put them in camps. We slaughtered Indians.

Right, but remember the intentions of the Founding Fathers. Even the Constitution protects the minority.

4.The bitching and moaning about Christmas:
I remember there was this one news story a few years back about some student who was offended because there were crosses in the windows. This was made big around Christmas time and it was labeled as something along the lines of "a government attempt to subliminally spread Christianity." I mean, never mind the fact that's it's for structural integrity reasons. This story was expanded upon and someone wanted all crosses in windows removed from every government building.

Considering that there are no exams set for Christian holidays, I say you guys have it a lot better than the rest of us.

5. The means justify the ends if the ends positive outcome is greater than the loss and opportunity cost.
When you add to the saying, it proves that you think is originally deffective. "Positive outcome" for whom? The majority? At cost of lives and well being of the minority? So, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is only true for the majority?