If Possessing A Higher Degree Of Intelligence

As For Cages Themselves, An Ordinary Citizen Who Kept Dogs In Similar Conditions For Their Entire Lives Would Risk Prosecution For Cruelty. A Pig Producer Who Keeps An Animal Of Comparable Intelligence In This Manner, However, Is More Likely To Be Rewarded With A Tax Concession Or, In Some Countries, A Direct Government Subsidy.

Charitable Giving Is A Huge Sector In The United States. It Amounts To $350 Billion A Year. And Yet, I Can't Help Feeling That A Lot Of That Is Wasted Because People Have Not Been Thinking About How To Do It As Effectively As Possible.

If A Being Suffers There Can Be No Moral Justification For Refusing To Take That Suffering Into Consideration. No Matter What The Nature Of The Being, The Principle Of Equality Requires That Its Suffering Be Counted Equally With The Like Suffering - Insofar As Rough Comparisons Can Be Made - Of Any Other Being. So The Limit Of Sentience Is The Only Defensible Boundary Of Concern For The Interests Of Others. To Mark This Boundary By Some Other Characteristic Like Intelligence Or Rationality Would Be To Mark It In An Arbitrary Manner. Why Not Choose Some Other Characteristic, Like Skin Color?

Capitalism Is Very Far From A Perfect System, But So Far We Have Yet To Find Anything That Clearly Does A Better Job Of Meeting Human Needs Than A Regulated Capitalist Economy Coupled With A Welfare And Health Care System That Meets The Basic Needs Of Those Who Do Not Thrive In The Capitalist Economy. If We Ever Do Find A Better System, I'll Be Happy To Call Myself An Anti-capitalist.

Whereas The Property-owning Middle Class Could Win Freedom For Themselves On The Basis Of Rights To Property--thus Excluding Others From The Freedom They Gain--the Property-less Working Class Possess Nothing But Their Title As Human Beings. Thus They Can Liberate Themselves Only By Liberating All Humanity.