Tuesday 13 January 2009

Why are people so daft?

Yesterday's discussion on Letters From A Tory was about a couple turned down for adoption because the bloke was a bit on the tubby side. OK, he was over 24 stone and morbidly obese with a BMI of 42. He's very likely to die young, and is surprised that the adoption panel don't want to entrust him with a long-term responsibility.

What caught my eye was a comment by one of the contributors that:

Here we have what seem to be two perfectly lovely human beings wanting to give an orphan a home! Whether they are fat or not shouldn’t even come into the discussion. [...] I would have thought a loving home is far more preferable to any child than living in an institution and feeling unwanted!

It struck me that this line of reasoning is becoming more and more prevalent. Instead of solving the actual problem, let's offload it elsewhere and create a whole lot more problems. Such as:
  • Don't make childrens' homes into decent places to grow up, just lower the standards for adoptive parents instead
  • A shortage of prison places can be solved easily, by letting criminals out before they have completed their sentences
  • A manifesto committment to a referendum on a Constitutional Treaty that is obviously going to be rejected by the public is easily solved by re-naming the Treaty and not asking the people what they think about it
  • Has your economy collapsed after suddenly realised that it has been growing purely through the stimulus created by an unsustainable credit boom? Easy - just borrow more money to create a stimulus package!
  • Swallowed a fly? No worries - just swallow a spider to eat the fly...
Any other examples?
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4 comments:

  1. Old BE13 January 2009 at 13:15

    In a similar vein, my flatmate thinks that if everyone worked a few hours less a week, there would be more jobs because the amount of work needed to be done would be the same. He reckons if everyone only worked a four day week we could maintain our standard of living because everything would immediately be 20% less expensive.

    None of my arguments as to why this wouldn't work seem to get through.

    ReplyDelete
  2. patently13 January 2009 at 14:06

    ROFL!

    That is so daft, it actually makes my brain hurt trying to understand it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mrs Smallprint14 January 2009 at 14:16

    How about "I need to make less profit so I won't have to pay so much tax".

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  4. JuliaM15 January 2009 at 17:22

    "It struck me that this line of reasoning is becoming more and more prevalent."

    It's because judgement on cold, practical fact has fallen out of favour - now, feelings are what count.

    The decision not to let this man foster a child feels unfair, and so therefore (to the commenter) it is.

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