Is the world fucked up beyond repair? (aka What would the Greeks' SDMB have contained

[tracer]

*Originally posted by toadspittle *
We humans just happen to have rapidly accumulated power beyond the reckoning of all other species, and are now in a position to dominate the planet completely.

Wooooo! Go us!!

Ya don’t fuck with the nuke-wielding apes of planet 3!

[Bryan_Ekers]

GD thread: The Zapruder texts have been altered. Julius Caeser wasn’t killed by 63 Senators, it was a Lone Knifeman!

(okay, I stole that from History Bites)

[ElJeffe]

They may shrug yes and go back to work, but I doubt they would be very thankful for their job (would anyone?) Yes maybe working an unsafe job is helping them in the short term, but should it not be the responsibilty of a more educated (and well off) nation to protect those who are less fortunate, not merely take advantage of them? The same could of been said for slave labor (as a dramatic comparision). Sure slaves may have a terrible working environment but they had food and shelter. Better than starving I suppose.

I don’t think it’s as simple as saying, “Well, this job is hazardous, so here’s another one that’s safe.” It’s likely more of a choice between one hazardous job, and no job at all. Slave labor isn’t a valid analogy because the slaves had no choice. The person working with contaminated monitors can choose whether or not to work there. Granted, the choice may be a lousy one (hazardous job versus starvation), but it is, in fact, his choice.

And hazardous jobs aren’t something we always shlep off to the third world nations. We have hazardous jobs here, as well - firemen, police, hi-rise window washers… Hell, did you know that the military has engineers whose job it is to go disarm landmines manually? Pays 6 figures, but it’s certainly not without risks. And all of these examples pose far more tangible threats than a 10% increase in cancer rates. And they’re all conscious choices made by the people in question.

Now one thing I would expect is to have the workers informed of any potential health risks posed by these monitors. If they aren’t, then I agree that’s wrong - people can’t make informed decisions if they’re ignorant of the facts. But other than that, this work - and others like it - is simply one more in a list of options for the people to choose from, and I have no problems with that.
Jeff

[fessie]

I’m not so sure that the exploitive scenario is without ramifications. From what I’ve heard, the people at Bhopahl are still pissed at us for the 5,000 people who died in that industrial accident - they had no idea that plant up the street was so potentially dangerous. Are you so sure there isn’t a cosmic cost for using people? Wasn’t that part of the Taliban’s initial appeal to the people of Afghanistan, protection from Western expansionism? We bring progress, but at a cost.

I’ve liked the posts about not seeing things so black & white.

[Governor_Quinn]

To engage in more recent Greek history:

GD: Should we have overthrown Otho?

BP: The Colonels Suck!

GQ: Does Constantine II have a chance of gaining his throne back soon? (wait, that still applies!)

CS: Your opinions on “Z”

COCC: “Damn fool Turks”

[The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun]

CS: What if The Odyssey were written by someone else?