Tag Archives: altruism

What Should Society Do About The Poor? by Aaron Smith



Most people believe that society has a moral obligation toward its poor and its needy—and that something must be done, politically, to help them.

Is this the right way to think about the poor and society? Are these issues for the whole of society to decide? Are they political problems that need to have imposed political solutions? How would one think about issues surrounding the poor, handicapped or needy from a more individualist perspective rather than a collectivist perspective?

Join Aaron Smith in examining the question: What should society do about the poor?


Calls to “Abolish Billionaires” Are a Moral Travesty by Keith Lockitch



There’s a new campaign slogan among Democratic politicians: “Abolish Billionaires.” Nobody can honestly deserve a billion dollars, they claim, so they want to impose radical new taxes on the super-wealthy. Indeed, people are arguing that the very existence of billionaires is some kind of moral outrage. Wealthy people are being blamed today for all the…


Is Altruism Good? by Ben Bayer



Maybe you’ve heard of something called “effective altruism”? It’s a recent movement that encourages people to do research to figure out the best way to give away as much of their own money as possible, allegedly in order to help out as many people as possible. Now one wonders if calling it “effective altruism” implies…


Is Selfishness the Root of All Evil? by Keith Lockitch



If there is one thing that almost everyone agrees on today, it’s that selfishness is bad. From day one, we’ve been told, “don’t be selfish” or “selfishness is the root of all evil.” But what if the way we think about selfishness is completely wrong? What if our conventional understanding of what it means to be selfish is…