While heating up some pizza I caught part of an MSNBC examination of this video, which I think may be the most watched video on Youtube. If you haven't seen it, watch. It truly is fascinating.
What caught my eye (or ear) though in watching this show, which was mostly an interview of those who filmed the scene and a summary of how it got to be so popular via Youtube, was the characterizing of it. "Feel good story", "Disney-movie like", and "miracle" were three descriptions. And yes, from a Disney movie perspective where typically the higher you are on the food chain the more evil you are as a character perspective, it is very much like that. But this is real life, so what are the real life consequences of this event? Presumably the lionesses and their mates and cubs went hungry that night. While the bull pup's odds of surviving shot up astronomically, the odds of the pride of lions surviving all went down a little.
The point is I think this lack of thinking beyond decision one, to the consequences and economic ratifications of decisions and consequently their ratifications, is a serious problem in both this country and around the world. The minimum wage is a perfect example. Putting a price floor on how much unskilled laborers should be paid sounds like a wonderful idea in theory. But what are the real consequences? Put much too simply, the real cost of unskilled labor is raised by an arbitrarily determined amount for all employers and any employer who does not value their UL at that arbitrarily determined price will lay off workers and/or hire less in the future.
I belive this is one of the fundamental weaknesses of the modern liberal philosophy.
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