Another Comment

hey ben,

sorry it's been so long since i commented on your blog post. but for some reason i thought of it today. i tried to post it but it didn't let me, even when i created an account. so here's what i wrote:

In a sense, there is not a conflict between those two, in that we are each a part of the world. So doing right by ourselves is part of doing right by the world. However, I see what you're getting at - I think. Sure, people do selfish things that harm many other people, but perhaps they are not recognizing the broader impact that their decisions have on the world and therefore on themselves as a part of the world. Or they value the benefit that they will receive more highly than they perceive the cost to them. For a large number of cases, I think that such people do not fully account for the costs. For example, a drug company that does not work to make life-saving medication available to the extremely poor may be failing to account for 1. the cost of the human misery that they are allowing, and 2. the cost of the forgone benefit that they personally would receive by living in a world in which people have access to the medication that they need.

yeah, so i added an econ major last year, if that's not evident enough from the post. anyway, i hope all is well! things in dc are crazy busy all of a sudden, but i think they'll slow down after spring break...we'll see. we're going to do a sleepout for the homeless this year with class council. i went to the one they did two years ago, and i have a friend on cc that worked on it, so i told her i wanted to re-institute it with neighbors as a sponsor. should be a cool event.

short update, but perhaps we can catch up at more length soon.

all the best,
liz

[from Feb 28 email from Liz Ramey to bspears]

[to view older posts on these topics, follow these links:
http://benjamminspearsblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/self-interest.html and
http://benjamminspearsblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/gospel.html ]