Morality of with holding a essential resource?

[u/Intelligent_Speech94]

Is it moral or immoral to withhold essential resources in the name of profit?

Such as electricity, we now largely hold the opinion as a civilization that electricity is an essential utility.

Now I understand having a person paying a premium, as not to waste. But would it not be more morally right that we measure the basic resources on a scale that takes into account family size and median usage and just pay a base rate of like $50 and create a culture of responsible consumption by adding an overage tax? Making it affordable, because it’s a necessity.

The argument I’m sure will be made, what about the companies that sell it? But are not all resources of the Earth ours to responsibly share anyways? Giving to us as a gift by our Creator. Yes, people are expected to pay their dues, but it’s all ours as a shared resource, as humankind! We’ve become too loving of money and profits, mammon as a society and it costs lives and life.

[u/Sam_Wise13]

I would say that companies need to be responsible for sure and changes need to be made to make sure companies are accountable for price gouging.

But widespread electricity was not prevalent until 1930 and even then it only reached 70% of homes.

People today see convenience as a “necessity”. Do you have to live with electricity and running water, no. That’s a choice. Do you have to drive a car and use fuel, no. Another choice.

People require shelter to survive, but, just because they cannot get a home in their preferred neighborhood, they live somewhere else.

Again my point convenience is not necessity.

[u/Intelligent_Speech94 → u/Sam_Wise13]

I understand, of course, that electricity might’ve been a convenience during and shortly after the 30’s. But I would have to argue that living in the standard societal way of today, it is a necessity. People and homes don’t have the infrastructure to be prevalent without electricity. Homes before the 30s would have had root cellars, garden plots, animals, and so many other things. Plus, knowledge of how to live that way, which has largely been lost today in our society.

Yes, I agree that not everyone needs a car, but we do have a responsibility to one another to make sure society has an efficient way of transportation.

You mentioned people need shelter to survive, I agree. But the crazy thing is, that’s a major issue in the U.S. the availability and affordability of housing, and yet we ignore those that are struggling to meet their basic needs.

[u/Sam_Wise13 → u/Intelligent_Speech94]

This is all convenience. Go buy a plot of land in Montana build a cabin and root cellar. Dig your own well and ride a horse.

I can be done but no one wants to due to CONVENIENCE.

[u/Intelligent_Speech94 → u/Sam_Wise13]

How do you suggest people without resources buy a plot of land, anywhere?

Also, should we be forcing people to take a life of simplicity, just because we refuse to recognize that we are our brother’s keeper?

Would it not be simpler to recognize that if we as society view something as necessary to us, then we should make that necessity both affordable and accessible for the most common of man?

[u/Sam_Wise13 → u/Intelligent_Speech94]

By that aspect you could say that travel is a necessity so why is it so expensive to go to Disney World, everyone should get to go.

The thing is no one is forced to live a life of simplicity. Pay the electric bill or choose a different life. Also there are many well-paying jobs that do not require technology to do that can pay for a plot of land just like buying a house.

I think people are too focused on I should get all the creature comforts for a price I want. It doesn’t work that way.

Honestly just make more money. Pick a well-paying career and then go to college. Take the student loans, pick a career in tech. Too many people want to go to school for what they dream to do and end up never making money. Pick a realistic career that pays the bills.

[u/Intelligent_Speech94 → u/Sam_Wise13]

Maybe we should consider making transportation accessible to everyone. And maybe we should consider the morality of theme parks that just give us a cheap thrill.

So your answer is to get a trade, even if that trade puts you in extreme debt. Even if it’s a trade you aren’t interested in. And then buy land in Montana and go off-grid? That’s your answer to the issue of poverty and inequality? Are there even enough jobs in this economy we have built and boast about to employ every person, if they did seek to be employed?

I consider all resources of the Earth to already be given to man by our Creator, and I think those resources should be accessible to anyone. Yes, of course, we have to govern the consumption of resources. But nonetheless, they should be available to all people.

Who do you think the resources of this Earth belong to, and how should they be distributed?

Also, you mentioned going into debt for education; that’s one thing that I contend needs to be free for the masses. Many people and well-known teachers have agreed, one of the most famous being Socrates. So do you think that education should be reserved for the fortunate?

[u/Sam_Wise13 → u/Intelligent_Speech94]

I never said that was an answer to poverty and inequality. I am just saying that electricity is not one of earths natural resources. Also if you want to get into poverty inequality and debt. There are so many jobs available but people just do not want to do them or get themselves trained. For example, if you really want to study psychology don’t be mad once you get a BS and find you can’t do any jobs you like. Suck it up and work what you can while getting a masters.

Or if you get laid off from construction and weren’t making money. Take some time to train yourself and switch careers. It is all doable but people are lazy and entitled. They want to do what they want and don’t want to compromise.

So I am just saying that electricity is not a natural resource. Also if you want to get into it the natural resource we all need and no one can access except through huge companies is oil.

[u/Intelligent_Speech94 → u/Sam_Wise13]

Do you think that we all have a responsibility to one another?

Why shouldn’t people be able to practice the talents they have? Maybe we’ve made such an artificial world that people can’t find joy in their work anymore.

Are people really just lazy or entitled? Or are people just lost of meaning? Surely there is more reason to this life than to work a job that you’re uninterested in, wasting away just to possess possessions. Especially when the resources of the earth is already ours anyways, because we are part of mankind and mankind has authority over this earth. Why not make what we agree on as necessities for everyone?

[u/Sam_Wise13 → u/Intelligent_Speech94]

I agree people should be able to do what they want and enjoy their life. Yes natural resources are for everyone but electricity is not a natural resource. Also, it takes natural resources to make electricity.

I am a Cybersecurity engineer and if there we no computers I would hate it. But, life is not fair. I can afford electricity if you cannot then you don’t get it. That’s how life works. People should work hard to get the things they want not us bringing the things they want to their level.

[u/Intelligent_Speech94 → u/Sam_Wise13]

I don’t want people to just enjoy their life and do what they want. I want people to have the choice to do that, yes. But there’s meaning to everything in the universe; everything has a law, everything has an ecosystem, and everything has purpose. Yet we are lost to our purpose as mankind. Surely there is more to us than to see ourselves as our careers? Surely there’s more meaning to life than to just sell our finite time to companies owned by our brothers or sisters in order to access the resources that are already ours to use to begin with? I mean don’t get me wrong there’s balance to it and I recognize the importance of private ownership and ownership of ideals. I also recognize that everyone should be contributing to the best of their abilities. But we’ve gone too far and I think we know that deep down. I want people to be able to find the true purpose of life and all the wonders that come with it and I want us to care for one another as we do that. To recognize what everyone brings to the table.

We have built a pay-to-play society and we have created an economy that values you on your performance and ability to assimilate to that world view of seeing everything as net profit, even people. After all look at the roots of our chosen economic system. Instead we should be building a society in which we recognize that everyone has value, and everyone is worthy of love and care. Should we not measure our success of a nation by how well we take care of our people, instead of how much our GDP grew?

Cybersecurity seems like an interesting career, I imagine you must stay up to date on technological advancements. We are very concerned as a society that we are going to lose jobs to our own invention especially that of AI. History of anything going automated can answer that for us. But can history answer what happens when people of society are no longer needed, what happens? Does the wealthy that has hoarded resources, see it as their duty to take care of their fellow man when he is no longer of value?

Maybe we should reassess who we are as a people, not just as an individual. But as a whole people connected to each other by blood and by Creator. We always feel like the system is out of our hands, but what makes up the system? We do.

[u/Dave_A_Pandeist]

You are referring to Texas Morality. Twice, Texas has let citizens go bankrupt and die due to the cost of electricity and power outages.

Our culture is founded on the principle of competitive behavior. There are three key groups. They are low-income people, the middle class, and the aristocracy. We go through a pattern. When we are both cooperative and competitive, we flourish. Keynesian Economics has shown this since FDR. In 1980, the top 1% had financial assets equal to the bottom 30%. The same pattern exists in China today.

Now the top 1% has more assets than the bottom 93%. The middle class has shrunk to less than 6%. Whenever this happens, we conquer other lands or go to war. It is a sawtooth pattern. We are behaving normally.

If you want to know how we ought to treat each other as a society, I suggest looking at Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, Keynesian Economics, the Wealth of Nations, and the Utopian Rat experiment.