Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
So while in some situations it's still helpful especially at the micro level (protect your kids, be loyal to your friends), from a policy standpoint, I'm arguing that tribal impulses should be ignored.
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But how practical is that? If Canadians regarded all human lives as having equal value, and saw it as our responsibility to save as many lives a possible, regardless of nationality, we would divert 90 per cent of our health care funding to malaria prevention, or mandate all Canadian-trained doctors must spend five years working overseas before they can work in the Canadian system. And we would have to accept that meant thousands more Canadians dying a year, or living in great distress.
It gets even more blurry than that. How many South Africans have died in the last 20 years because hundreds of South African trained nurses - a precious commodity in that country - have emigrated to Canada, leaving their compatriots with even less access to health care? I'd hazard that number is far greater than the number of South African lives we've saved with whatever aid we devote to that country.
If we cared as much about foreign lives and property as our own, we wouldn't be spending a penny on flood mitigation in southern Alberta, and would instead devote that money to similar projects in Bangladesh, or Vietnam.
I understand the theoretical point you're making. And we should work towards broadening our circles of empathy (and recognize the tremendous progress we have made in expanding that circle in recent generations). But eschewing tribalism and self-interest altogether is a utopian ideal.