I just finished
reading Sagoff’s chapter, Allocation and
Distribution of Resources, and I have to say that I feel a little more
ashamed of myself and disturbed than before I picked up the text.
Are the
rationale of our day-to-day choices actually that different from our
fundamental values? Sagoff seems to think so: “I buy only disposable [bottles]
now, but to soothe my conscience, I urge my state senator to outlaw one-way
containers.” No question that Sagoff was trying to assuage his guilt in that
situation (like mining corps do when they promise to restore the land…), but
the contradiction seems unacceptable. The way I interpreted this example – let
me know if you disagree – is that he’s very much in favor of regulation.
Regulation, if aligned with our ethics system, eliminates the choice we’d have
to make between our preferences as consumers and values as citizens i.e. “the
consumer against himself as a citizen or as a member of a moral community” I
never thought the two were quite so mutually exclusive...
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