the dead don't suffer
the living always suffer
this isn't about "preferences"
this is only about reducing suffering
Only unwanted suffering; if you want to work out in the gym, it would be painful, but you chose to endure that pain, so it's wanted pain (or at least tolerated pain). Being alive produces tolerable amounts of pain for anyone not suicidal.
i suffer emotional damage when i think about the unborn hoards losing their bright futures
banning abortion reduces my suffering
Legalizing abortion reduces female suffering (if she chooses to abort) more than banning it reduces your suffering. You want kids to have bright futures? Then adopt a kid. Until then, it's all virtue signalling.
i love shooting guns and when i'm shooting guns i forget about all my problems and this reduces my suffering
There's videogames for that, where there is no big movement to ban.
unskilled immigration drives down wages and low wages make me feel bad, i like money and money reduces my suffering
Wages won't go down because a doubled population moving into the country produces twice as much demand for jobs, but also twice as much supply for them. A company with twice as many customers (which immigrants are customers off the job and workers on the job) will need twice as many workers to maintain the customers.
drugs cause suffering and if we can end the drug trade by scaring the pants off everyone with harsh penalties, then, in the long run, suffering will be reduced for future generations
How's that worked out so far?
and on top of that, it makes me feel good to think about drug dealers and drug addicts locked up in prison for the rest of their lives
That's just sadistic (which being sadistic is a republican thing).
and the idea of my tax dollars paying for someone else to get an advantage in the job market increases my suffering
Free college costs $60 billion/year in taxes (about $200 per US Citizen/year extra in taxes). The top 25% are paying about 90% of this (and for them, the higher taxes aren't a significent amount of suffering compared to student loans), so for the bottom 75% on average; it's like $20/US Citizen on average; for the bottom 50%, it's like $4/year. Having them pay the $4/year is less suffering than having a college student pay $120000 in college fees.
if you punish innovators, they'll just move somewhere else and then they'll fire all their employees in your country and unemployment increases suffering
There are 193 nations in the world all with some level of taxation. If all the globalists cared about was avoiding taxes, then whichever nation had the lowest tax rate, 100% of the globalists would live there. The globalists aren't moving even if they have to pay 10% higher in taxes due to the government raising them.
that's the problem. nobody cares about ALL HUMAN SUFFERING
True, but if you had to pick between preventing a kid from scraping their knee (tax hike on the rich) and preventing a kid from having their leg chopped off by a chainsaw (student loan for a student), I think if you are AUP, it's pretty obvious which reduces unwanted pain the most. The rich person will heal; the student is much less likely to.
also, in the united states, the lawmakers are all funded by millionaires and billionaires, so, don't expect them to bite the hand that feeds them anytime soon
The left wants to repeal Citizens United.