Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
Such a "relationship" is morally/aesthetically disgusting, perhaps even more so with the parents' consent since it means her closest people are in on this. It was disgusting even when it was commonplace and unforbidden, see: all the tropes about young women forced to marry old rich ugly men. Those who point at the Big Money Number in response I consider a different moral species.
And a typical Saudi Arabian moralist may well say that a "relationship" between two men is morally/aesthetically disgusting too, and it's even more disgusting when the state openly supports signs and tokens of such depravity. It was also disgusting when it was commonplace and unforbidden back in Ancient Greece (and if you are of a religious bent, Sodom and Gomorrah). Those who point at the personal happiness of two men who love each other sign and use it to say that homosexuality is fine our Saudi Arabian commentator would consider a different moral species too.
What makes your argument valid but not that of the Saudi Arabian? If it is just that society is fine with one at the moment but not the other then I will mention that 100 years ago wasn't fine with homosexuality either and through a lot of effort this was changed until that's no longer the case and modern people don't think that gay people 100 years ago who were supressed by the state under its laws and moral of the time were doing anything bad either.
Unless you think the original gay activists etc. were doing something bad, why is this bad then?
I don't believe both people in a child-adult situation are going to be happy about it, even putting aside the other parts of the objection - the capability disparity, the coercion, the disgust with the adult's conduct, etc. I also don't believe in God or the primacy of maximally darwinist behaviour. In general, I want societies to exist to make individuals within happy rather than individuals existing to make societies happy, and I prefer mild discomfort that's shared over severe oppression that's offloaded onto a few.
In that case you should be supportive of society being discomforted by a child recieving $10 million for having sex with Epstein with their full understanding and the support of their parents. Remember the child is getting an extremely good deal here they are free to choose to take or refuse. It's not you will be forced into sex with Epstein and given $10 million, it's "you may choose to have sex with Epstein for $10 million". In financial markets we have options that give you the right to do something and thus they have value, If this option here were offered on the financial markets it would be priced in the millions.
This trade lifts the oppression of a life of drudgery from the child's shoulders for only a few minutes of suffering. Remember we're not talking about a long term relationship here, just a single act and there is no coercion happening here, the child only gets access to the money once they are 21 so their parents won't get to see a cent of it unless the now adult child decides to share it with them of thier own volition. The child may well not be happy about the sex act itself, but the $10 million on the other end brings enough utility to easily make it up.
Our Saudi Arabian moralist would be equally disgusted with the conduct of the two gays, but that's not a good reason to listen to him.
I'm aware that it must sound like an extremely obvious choice to someone who's willing to high-decouple it and look at the thought experiment as a strictly one-time thing, not something that is in practice a) too good a deal to be true; b) will lead to a markedly more degraded world if permitted in general. I'm not humoring it, and seeing as it's originally proposed for the purposes of trolling, I'm feeling rather vindicated about it, too.
As the joke goes, "in theory we have $3 million between us, and in practice we have 2 faggots and a whore". I prefer to show my moral inclinations in practice.
Unlike some I do not believe in a God-given right to be listened to, mine or otherwise. You will not mathematically prove the righteousness of your beliefs to me, and neither will I attempt to. The answer to "why do you think you're right and this guy you disagree with isn't" is always "because I'm right and this guy I disagree with isn't".
Sure, so I hope you understand why I am completely dismissive of your objections to the issue at hand (and think that society should also be completely dismissve of it), it's for the exact same reason you are dismissive of the Saudi moralist's objection to gays (and think that society should be completely dismissive of that too).
If that's the only thing you were trying to tell me, you've kind of been wasting your time, because I'm already aware of that.
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