OKCupid question

[novapsyche]

[Poll #761366]

Comments

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I don't make my answer lightly, either. I write with my good hand!

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

I think it would be a fair trade, especially since I wouldn't have to worry about being poverty-stricken.

[chimalis.livejournal.com]

Interesting the ramifications of that, though. Solve poverty and what happens to impoverished nations? How does that change the positions of the current world powers ecmonomically/politically/etc?

[mehinda.livejournal.com]

I think this is one of those questions that allows people the illusion that they're willing to make great sacrifices for larger gains (for everyone) without really testing anything. The situation is so hypothetical and idealized that it loses all ability to be probative.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Heh. I didn't think about playing the odds.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Well, keep in mind that this is for a dating website... the question is merely a reflection of how you view yourself. Some people know straight out that they wouldn't give their hand for anything, so the answer is right there. It all comes down to how you view the question, and how you think someone else might view the question and what that means for a possible Love Match(tm).

[bonerici.livejournal.com]

"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land."

-Deuteronomy 15:11

Poor or poverty is a relative term. What is poverty in Ethiopia is not poverty in America. As long as there is any different in wealth there will be poverty, it's like not being able to have "hot" without having "cold".

So if I think I can solve poverty by cutting off my hand I know I am lying to myself.

A better question is, would you cut of your own hand if you could prevent all diseases, so that people would live eternally and youthful, that everyone would always have enough food to eat and everyone in the world would have shelter.

Here, I think the answer is also "no". If the population of the world increases unchecked we are nothing more than a disease a plague which will overcrowd the earth until nothing but humans are left, no more tigers and lions, no more redwood trees, no more whales, we would crowd them out into nothingness if the population growth was free of natural restraints.

I don't think that human beings have any special right to the planet, we have equal rights with the fishes, the plants the animals, the chimps, our towering intellect doesn't give us more and better rights for existence.

I think better than solving poverty, better than freedom from disease, better than solving the problem of world hunger, the best gift to give the world would be the wisdom and intelligence to know the consequences of our own actions, to be able to see what type of future we are building.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

As long as there is any different in wealth there will be poverty

Exactly.

Excellent question.

[ryoganox.livejournal.com]

I voted yes. But I wanted to comment on it the nature of the question.

At first the question that came to me was, would the removal be painful. But immediately I followed through with looking at the word poverty.

pov·er·ty (NOUN)
1. The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs or comforts.
2. Deficiency in amount; scantiness.
3. Unproductiveness; infertility.
4. Renunciation made by a member of a religious order of the right to own property.

I saw another question in your poll... what is poverty to you? Which is a deeper question than Yes or No could answer easily. For me I thought of Spiritual Poverty and Financial Poverty.

[dionysus1999.livejournal.com]

Sacrifice. What would you sacrifice for the greater good? Not a question people in the United States are used to being asked. I sacrifice a considerable amount of time in the pursuit of a healthier world through my various environmental tasks, like recycling, buying larger size containers, living with less (easier when you're of modest income), etc.

My vegetarianism is one of those, though I don't consider it a sacrifice. I have no interest in consuming most animals.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

We used to be asked to sacrifice. See the WWII era.

[brendand.livejournal.com]

Since that would include my own poverty, yes.

But in reality, there's just no way.

[sarahmichigan.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Is this one of those "Monkey's Paw"/Twilight Zone things where the "solution" to poverty is depopulating the world? No more people, no more poverty, after all.

[kdollarsign.livejournal.com]

the world's population is in fact decreasing. several developed nations -- like italy, possbily spain -- have a negative birth rate and that's just killing their economies.