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- Xref: sparky talk.abortion:57077 alt.abortion.inequity:6608
- Newsgroups: talk.abortion,alt.abortion.inequity
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!yale.edu!nigel.msen.com!heifetz!rotag!kevin
- From: kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy)
- Subject: Re: sexist assumptions
- Message-ID: <1993Jan21.033122.3631@rotag.mi.org>
- Organization: Who, me???
- References: <1jfkt8INNec2@gap.caltech.edu> <C145tA.ELE@cs.psu.edu> <1ji7tmINNfnv@gap.caltech.edu>
- Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 03:31:22 GMT
- Lines: 43
-
- In article <1ji7tmINNfnv@gap.caltech.edu> peri@cco.caltech.edu (Michal Leah Peri) writes:
- >beaver@castor.cs.psu.edu (Don Beaver) writes:
- >
- >>peri@cco.caltech.edu (Michal Leah Peri) writes:
- >>>kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy) writes:
- >
- >>Man A's condom breaks, woman has abortion, man A pays no child support.
- >
- >>Man B's condom breaks, woman has child, man B pays $200,000.
- >
- >>What did man B do that man A did not -- given that the woman's choice
- >>was unilateral in each case? What is the source of his obligation,
- >>and is it something he caused? If he caused it, then how -- if man A
- >>did not?
- >
- >Lets try a little analogy here: You earn $1M and do not report it to
- >the IRS. Some beancounter at the IRS decides to audit you. You end
- >in hock for back taxes + fines, etc. John Doe also earns $1M and does
- >not report it. He does not get audited. He gets off scott free.
- >
- >Are you exempt from paying just because John Doe didn't get caught?
-
- Bad analogy...
-
- Regardless of your political views on taxation, you must acknowledge that the
- IRS "beancounter" is duly authorized by our current system of government to
- exercise control, via the decision to audit or not to audit, over whether you
- and/or John Doe will be "in hock" or not. Furthermore, this control is exercised
- WITHOUT the "beancounter" having any personal stake in the outcome of
- whatever decision he makes -- if he DOES somehow have a conflict of interests,
- he must recuse himself.
-
- In the case of paternity child support, however, the woman is NOT duly
- authorized (except _de facto_, by a temporary legal aberration) to exercise
- control, via the decision whether or not to abort, over whether the father of
- the conceptus will be "in hock" or not. And, even if she WERE duly authorized,
- she has a SEVERE conflict of interest problem, since if she decides to have
- and keep the child, then whatever child support expenses aren't covered under
- his liability remain for HER to assume. Her decision is clearly tainted by
- self-interest, and cannot therefore necessarily be relied upon as the best
- decision for society as a whole.
-
- - Kevin
-