what you deserve is not a right
2008-Jul-03, Thursday 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellowtiggerFrom the writings of David Brin, my favorite sci-fi author:
"The right to live is tentative. Material things are limited, though the mind is free. Of protein, phosphorus, nor even energy is there ever enough to slake all hungers. Therefore, show not affront when diverse beings vie over what physically exists. Only in thought can there be true generosity. So let thought be the focus of your world."
BBC News is showing a video that is security camera footage of a woman who died on the floor of a waiting room in a New York City hospital during her 24-hour wait there. I dunno, my feelings about it are a bit convoluted. I never really expected to live to 40, so my thoughts about a "right" to live are already skewed from the norm. For only 5 years, I think, have I ever had really good medical insurance, so I've done without medical care that other people probably take for granted. I don't think such care is a "right" either.
I found out today that my company is required to open a retirement savings IRA for me, absent other direction from me (which I neglected to do, my fault). So I'll have to get a form to tell them to stop. I don't have a "right" to free money, the interest/dividends appearing magically from under one shell, and that money got there after having appeared magically at some previous shell. (Where does all this free money come from? I don't want any part of it until I understand and approve the answer.)
Anything living probably deserves to continue living. If there is medical talent and product available, probably anyone deserves to receive it. If there is really free money, then definitely let's all dig into that magical pot of gold. But what a person deserves is not the same thing as a "right".
People seem to use the word "rights" about things that cost other people some effort and resources that they never intended to spend in the first place. I don't believe those things are "rights". I don't know a good definition of rights as I comprehend them. It has something more to do with choices that other people make (so as not to favor one person over another) than it has to do with extracting products and services from them.
I believe that anyone who suffers deserves relief, but a life without hardship is not a right.
I believe that anyone who hungers or thirsts deserves food or water, but a life well nourished is not a right.
I believe that anyone who wants to marry deserves a mate, but a life with loving companionship is not a right.
I believe that anyone who wants to parent deserves offspring, but a life with children is not a right.
I believe that anyone who wants to continue living deserves to live, but the universe is designed in such a way to prevent that desire from being a right.
Tanstaafl on the universal scale. I guess that's what I believe.
"The right to live is tentative. Material things are limited, though the mind is free. Of protein, phosphorus, nor even energy is there ever enough to slake all hungers. Therefore, show not affront when diverse beings vie over what physically exists. Only in thought can there be true generosity. So let thought be the focus of your world."
BBC News is showing a video that is security camera footage of a woman who died on the floor of a waiting room in a New York City hospital during her 24-hour wait there. I dunno, my feelings about it are a bit convoluted. I never really expected to live to 40, so my thoughts about a "right" to live are already skewed from the norm. For only 5 years, I think, have I ever had really good medical insurance, so I've done without medical care that other people probably take for granted. I don't think such care is a "right" either.
I found out today that my company is required to open a retirement savings IRA for me, absent other direction from me (which I neglected to do, my fault). So I'll have to get a form to tell them to stop. I don't have a "right" to free money, the interest/dividends appearing magically from under one shell, and that money got there after having appeared magically at some previous shell. (Where does all this free money come from? I don't want any part of it until I understand and approve the answer.)
Anything living probably deserves to continue living. If there is medical talent and product available, probably anyone deserves to receive it. If there is really free money, then definitely let's all dig into that magical pot of gold. But what a person deserves is not the same thing as a "right".
People seem to use the word "rights" about things that cost other people some effort and resources that they never intended to spend in the first place. I don't believe those things are "rights". I don't know a good definition of rights as I comprehend them. It has something more to do with choices that other people make (so as not to favor one person over another) than it has to do with extracting products and services from them.
I believe that anyone who suffers deserves relief, but a life without hardship is not a right.
I believe that anyone who hungers or thirsts deserves food or water, but a life well nourished is not a right.
I believe that anyone who wants to marry deserves a mate, but a life with loving companionship is not a right.
I believe that anyone who wants to parent deserves offspring, but a life with children is not a right.
I believe that anyone who wants to continue living deserves to live, but the universe is designed in such a way to prevent that desire from being a right.
Tanstaafl on the universal scale. I guess that's what I believe.
no subject
Date: 2008-Jul-04, Friday 12:55 am (UTC)http://dodecadragon.livejournal.com/78101.html
no subject
Date: 2008-Jul-04, Friday 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-Jul-07, Monday 04:38 am (UTC)This is foolish and counterproductive. It might be the biggest mistake you will ever make in your entire life. And it would be negligence to not point that out.
no subject
Date: 2010-Feb-03, Wednesday 09:08 am (UTC)For most people an employer matched 401k/401b/IRA retirement account is a pretty good idea but it is not an unambiguously good thing in all cases and pretending so is ignorant and narrow minded.
The theory behind such plans is that a) the automate savings and b) they defer taxes until a "better time". This falls apart in the face of someone who is living on the ragged edge or for whom a "better time" may not arrive. If you are not making enough to make ends meet a savings account isn't much use, particularly when there is a substantial penalty for access. You are just reducing your take home pay when you need it most.
If you do direct deposit it might be worth the time to allocate the 5-10% you'd be putting into tax deferred retirement account into a normal savings account that you don't touch except for real emergencies. It combines the benefit of forcing you to budget in savings with allowing you to actually access the savings when you need it. You lose the tax benefit and the employer match but you don't get dinged 15% when you withdraw.
The tax benefit is a lot more complicated than is usually made out. The money is going to get taxed regardless but the assumption is you are making more now than you will be when you retire. If you are in the bottom set of tax brackets than that's probably not going to happen. The other thing that needs to be considered is if you are going to be around to withdraw it at all. If you've got kids & a family they'll still benefit, but if not it just goes away.
I think Mr. Walker's a bit nutty about the dying early thing (especially since MS looks much less likely) but as a childless man for whom the actuarial tables predict a death in my early sixties I find saving for a 70+ retirement rather uncompelling.