Oh now this is just revolting

I believe Paladin's question has been asked, perhaps word for word, before.

 

Oh, how simple -! What a fool she was for not thinking of that!

Especially when she was unable to work because of her illness, and her husband had reduced his working hours to take care of her (quite probably because he couldn't afford a home care attendant).

Well, sure. Someone who can't afford to pay an electric bill in its entirety (note the article says two payments *were* made in the past month) can obviously just trot on down to Big Lots and get one of those.

Yes, obviously, being a trained medical professional, she knew exactly how sick she was.

No point, in your universe. The hospital would have turned her away because SHE WASN'T A PRODUCTIVE CITIZEN WITH PLATINUM HEALTH CARE. SHE WAS A BAD PERSON FOR NOT PAYING HER ELECTRIC BILL IN ITS ENTIRETY. SHE DESERVED TO DIE!!!11!!

 

Frequently. What do you want to know?

 

I would not presume to answer for her, but my answer would be, like so many things in life: it depends on the circumstances.

 

But on PaladinWorld, there are no "circumstances." People live or die, it doesn't matter. THE MARKET IS GOD!!!!

 

When the government gives people an order to evacuate and they don't and are subsequently trapped in the aftermath of a hurricane, the first response of many is to blame the government for not rescuing them from where they weren't supposed to be in the first place.

When a man and his family drive over a remote mountainous pass at the height of winter and are subsequently snowed in (resulting in the death of the man), many people's first reaction is to blame the authorities for not adequately patrolling the road.

When a man climbs an eight-foot-tall fence adorned with "KEEP OUT" signs at an amusement part in order to enter an area off-limits to customers and is struck by a roller coaster and killed, his family sues the park for negligence.

I could probably go on and on...

We hear stories like this everyday. Everybody has an excuse but, amazingly, no one ever has any responsiblity. Responsibility is for the other person, who was supposed to be looking out for them. Well, society cannot exist as two groups of people: one immune from any responsibility, the other charged with all of it. People need to use a little fucking common sense and not presume that "someone else will take care of it" if they fail to exercise responsibility.

 

Every time a Propertarian uses the word "responsibility" (always in reference to the Other Guy), I keep thinking of that kid with the tricycle in "Miri":

"MINE, MINE, MINE, MINE!!!"

 

And as for my vote above (pretty major investigation): obviously stringing someone up might well be appropriate depending on what the investigation shows.

 

Well you could have started by answering the question that was posed to you originally. Or instead of just vomiting your usual vague disapproval in the form of , you could have suggested some way for things like this to be avoided. For instance, at least Paladin suggested an alternate course of action that could have been taken by the prick who shut off the power. Can you not be bothered by such specifics?

 

If her life was at stake, she was indeed a fool for not paying it.

garamet, you're hell-bent to make every excuse you can for this woman "yeah, but...", "yeah, but..." But the unavoidable truth is this: she MORE THAN ANY OTHER PERSON was aware of her situation. And she (or her family) allowed her to get into the situation where she was one power outage away from death.

If I were dependent on continuous power for my life, I would sell every possession I had in order to ensure that power.

Well, which is it: "Mr. Power Man, I'm going to die if you turn us off!" or "No, I'm alright, it's really nothing." ?

Where'd she get the oxygen, I wonder.

 

I'll take 'em seriously as soon as they start making lump sum payments to the government for the full value of all the benefits they've received from being part of a cooperative society. You know, pretty much everything in their lives that differentiates them from disease ridden hunter/gatherers with the average life expectancy of a modern house cat.

 

Stupid post. First of all, we all pay taxes (or at least, we should). Second, government didn't create society, society created government. The government has no means of it's own not provided by it's people. Who owes who their existance?

 

A society to which I contribute, thank you very much. And, by the way, I don't exist to serve society. Society exists to serve me. If I'm just an expendable resource in the greater interests of the collective, I'd just as soon forgo the "benefits."

Tell you what: each of us is one person among 300,000,000. You calculate the value of all that, divide it by 300 million, and tell me what my share comes to. If any of us have undercontributed, we'll agree to pay our share. If any of us have overcontributed, we get a refund. Deal?

 

Hospitals generally have back-up generators. Even if main power isn't restored quickly, the generators will still buy people enough time to move the patients to other fucking hospitals, so they don't die.

If main power isn't restored, and they can't move the patients fast enough...well, just look to New Orleans during Katrina for the end of that equation.

 

Coming from marathon, that's a trick question. Now he's gonna suggest that this woman should have had her own personal generator, so her death is her own fault.

 

Is there some reason why she shouldn't have, considering the particularly dire nature of her need for continuous power?

 

Did you know Ayn Rand had her name changed to Ayn Rand (from Alisa Rosenbaum), and chose Ayn cuz it rhymes with "mine"?

I shit you not.

 

That's not quite the same situation. Presumably, this woman didn't choose to have a lung problem. A person chooses not to evacuate.

 

Also, what the hell is an oxygen machine? Oxygen will come out of a tank all by itself with no electricity whatsoever. Would it be better described as a breathing machine? Could the woman not operate her own lungs without a pump?

 

Please, don't confuse them with such little picky details as *volition*. It ruins the moment.

 

There's a machine you can get that filters and compresses pure oxygen from the air and refills the tanks.

 

Right, I'm sure someone will suggest that. Because she could hardly afford to pay for her main power, that obviously means she had oodles of cash to buy a back-up generator, just in case her power company is run by Darth Vader, Voldemort and Skeletor, and their contractors are all souless automatons.

 

But in both cases the people chose to put themselves in a situation that--if nothing else--common sense should've told them to avoid.

 

Neither did the guy with tuberculosis.

 

You've always just gone out to the yard and picked money off the trees, haven't you?

 

What's that got to do with anything?

 

Yeah it's not like someone brought up Katrina in this very thread as an example. It couldn't be that someone was responding to that specifically. Ah whatever. Anything to demonize the "enemy" right hippie girl? Vietnam taught you well

 

Did you read the OP?

 

I have a hard time feeling sorry for a woman that knows a power outage will kill her, but choses to not call an ambulance once her power is shutoff. She'd be alive if she didn't want to inconvenience her family.

 

You indeed do shit...