I agree that a tax doesn’t occur to most people. Nor does any other solution. That’s exactly what I’m saying is suspicious—it looks very much like motivated stopping. And more than that—if you do propose a tax on abortion, or public shaming for those who commit abortion, or any other intermediate step, these people concoct special pleading reasons to be against it.
If you claim to believe that something is immoral, but you are not interested in preventing it and react against any proposal that might, then I think the simplest conclusion is that you don’t really think it’s immoral.
I should point out, for the record, that I am not actually proposing a tax on abortions, or that people having abortions be publicly shamed, etc. I am merely pointing out that these are logical steps if you think it’s “immoral but shouldn’t be illegal.”
So does the fact that my grandpa hasn’t looked for ways to save on his electricity bill (at least, not hard enough for him to buy fluorescence lightbulbs) also look like motivated stopping? Motivated by what? (My model of people like him also says that telling him about fluorescence lightbulbs wouldn’t be enough to make him buy some.)
I imagine his stopping is motivated partly by laziness/habit. Yet I’m sure he’d switch if you were able to convince him that fluorescent lightbulbs would save him (say) $1000 a month. So it’s also a question of cost/benefit.
But while I don’t think he’s lying, I do imagine that there’s more to his reaction to leaving the lightbulb on than the mere cost. It is also the fact that it is wasteful. Leaving a lightbulb on in a room you’re not in feels profligate, and wrong, in a way that failing to buy the most energy-efficient lightbulb does not.
I imagine his stopping is motivated partly by laziness/habit.
Couldn’t the reason why people don’t think about ways to discourage abortions also be laziness? “Humans are cognitive misers” an’ all that. (Especially in the case of people who have never had an undesired pregnancy themselves.)
I agree that a tax doesn’t occur to most people. Nor does any other solution. That’s exactly what I’m saying is suspicious—it looks very much like motivated stopping. And more than that—if you do propose a tax on abortion, or public shaming for those who commit abortion, or any other intermediate step, these people concoct special pleading reasons to be against it.
If you claim to believe that something is immoral, but you are not interested in preventing it and react against any proposal that might, then I think the simplest conclusion is that you don’t really think it’s immoral.
I should point out, for the record, that I am not actually proposing a tax on abortions, or that people having abortions be publicly shamed, etc. I am merely pointing out that these are logical steps if you think it’s “immoral but shouldn’t be illegal.”
So does the fact that my grandpa hasn’t looked for ways to save on his electricity bill (at least, not hard enough for him to buy fluorescence lightbulbs) also look like motivated stopping? Motivated by what? (My model of people like him also says that telling him about fluorescence lightbulbs wouldn’t be enough to make him buy some.)
I imagine his stopping is motivated partly by laziness/habit. Yet I’m sure he’d switch if you were able to convince him that fluorescent lightbulbs would save him (say) $1000 a month. So it’s also a question of cost/benefit.
But while I don’t think he’s lying, I do imagine that there’s more to his reaction to leaving the lightbulb on than the mere cost. It is also the fact that it is wasteful. Leaving a lightbulb on in a room you’re not in feels profligate, and wrong, in a way that failing to buy the most energy-efficient lightbulb does not.
Couldn’t the reason why people don’t think about ways to discourage abortions also be laziness? “Humans are cognitive misers” an’ all that. (Especially in the case of people who have never had an undesired pregnancy themselves.)