This story really conveys how screwed up people's ethics are. We have a NZ failed tycoon living it up on the Gold Coast on anywhere between $1000 and $6700 per week. We have the wife proclaiming that she is not selfish; that she feels for the investors who lost money, that she cares about her family, etc.
Who cares? What matters to people is that a company which managed people's wealth lost most of it. How? I care little if they are selfish or not, because any such proclamations are going to be moral pride or delusions. What I care about is whether they are competent or not. Why? Because if they are competent:
1. They would have made money
2. There would not be any suffering.....unless...
You subscribe to the idea that selfishness is looting others, gaining at others expense. In this case, everyone lost....except the government. The regulators who stuffed up...not once but with 8 failed finance schemes in NZ escaped all criticism, yet the media has focused entirely on the executives 'living the high life'. Typical liberals.
Mind you, there is an important ethical question here. Should you live selfishly or selflessly. I say, it depends on how you define the term. If you think values are arbitrary dogma or subjectively defined, then it would be safer if you renounced all personal value, because you will not hurt anyone. If you think values are objective or rational, that you accept and embrace them for reasons, and those reasons ought to be coherent and consonant with the facts of reality, and that you possess the discipline and respect for facts to live by such a creed; then it is indeed safe for you to be selfish. But rest assured, that if you are regulated by the government, and expect them to spare you from making mistakes, then you are sadly mistaken because government is entirely the problem as it is structured upon the creed of altruism. Acknowledge that when govt increase tax burden to raise money, it matters not if that money does any good, its a question of spending more. More sacrifice, more altruism is how we access the moral rectitude of these actions. Do you ever wonder why society is so stuffed up?
Am I the only one who speaks like this?
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Author
Andrew Sheldon
