Bob’s a hero provided he’s paid his meat tax. That’s the tax we impose on people who do bad things to animals. The tax makes up for their bad karma. People who pay the tax should be considered absolved of sin—they’ve bought and paid for their indulgence, fair and square.
Am I a contemptible person because I burnt a gallon of gasoline this morning? What if I paid for it, external costs included? What if I paid a separate CO2 tax? What if I offset the carbon by planting trees? I think not.
Does this viewpoint make me a monster? As Temple Grandin likes to say, “that’s the kind of animal we are” (carnivores). Maybe we shouldn’t get too morally worked up over acting like homo sapiens. Nobody blames lions for eating antelopes. (Plus, just think of our poor mitochondria; enslaved for life...).
We’d have to physically stop carnivores if cattle had rights—but since cattle can’t respect the rights of others, they don’t themselves have rights. Sort of like the way we lock up criminals who don’t respect the rights of other humans—having proved unable to respect the rights of others, they lose (some of) their own rights.
Cattle are just protected a bit by us humans who impose meat taxes. The cattle don’t even get the tax money as compensation (unlike Bruce).
People who pay their way in the world, compensating those they’ve harmed, aren’t monsters and shouldn’t be “punished”.
Bob’s a hero provided he’s paid his meat tax. That’s the tax we impose on people who do bad things to animals. The tax makes up for their bad karma. People who pay the tax should be considered absolved of sin—they’ve bought and paid for their indulgence, fair and square.
Am I a contemptible person because I burnt a gallon of gasoline this morning? What if I paid for it, external costs included? What if I paid a separate CO2 tax? What if I offset the carbon by planting trees? I think not.
Does this viewpoint make me a monster? As Temple Grandin likes to say, “that’s the kind of animal we are” (carnivores). Maybe we shouldn’t get too morally worked up over acting like homo sapiens. Nobody blames lions for eating antelopes. (Plus, just think of our poor mitochondria; enslaved for life...).
We’d have to physically stop carnivores if cattle had rights—but since cattle can’t respect the rights of others, they don’t themselves have rights. Sort of like the way we lock up criminals who don’t respect the rights of other humans—having proved unable to respect the rights of others, they lose (some of) their own rights.
Cattle are just protected a bit by us humans who impose meat taxes. The cattle don’t even get the tax money as compensation (unlike Bruce).
People who pay their way in the world, compensating those they’ve harmed, aren’t monsters and shouldn’t be “punished”.