Good comment—I agree this is a meaningful distinction, though I don’t think it cuts as strongly as you do.
Firstly, I’m not sure where you are getting ‘impossible to discharge’ from. If you borrow $100, you would typically discharge that obligation by repaying $100 (plus interest). Similarly, if you believed in natalist obligations to parents, it seems logical that an obligation created by your parents investing say 19 years in raising you, could be discharged by through similar amount of investment.
Secondly, many of the obligations I mentioned cannot easily be avoided either. Moving to another country might get you out of paying taxes in one place, but you’ll probably have to pay them in the new place—and some countries like the US will continue to tax you even if you leave! Similarly national service is often based on citizenship, not residency, and obligations like decency and pond intervention cannot be discharged (though I guess you could choose to live in a location with few ponds and very buoyant children).
It’s even the case that many people seem to view leaving, and thereby escaping from location-based obligations, as immoral—see for example brain drain criticism, or criticism of fighting-age men for fleeing their country rather than defend it.
I don’t mean to take a strong stance here defending any particular one of these obligations. My point is just that a lot of people do believe in them.
Good comment—I agree this is a meaningful distinction, though I don’t think it cuts as strongly as you do.
Firstly, I’m not sure where you are getting ‘impossible to discharge’ from. If you borrow $100, you would typically discharge that obligation by repaying $100 (plus interest). Similarly, if you believed in natalist obligations to parents, it seems logical that an obligation created by your parents investing say 19 years in raising you, could be discharged by through similar amount of investment.
Secondly, many of the obligations I mentioned cannot easily be avoided either. Moving to another country might get you out of paying taxes in one place, but you’ll probably have to pay them in the new place—and some countries like the US will continue to tax you even if you leave! Similarly national service is often based on citizenship, not residency, and obligations like decency and pond intervention cannot be discharged (though I guess you could choose to live in a location with few ponds and very buoyant children).
It’s even the case that many people seem to view leaving, and thereby escaping from location-based obligations, as immoral—see for example brain drain criticism, or criticism of fighting-age men for fleeing their country rather than defend it.
I don’t mean to take a strong stance here defending any particular one of these obligations. My point is just that a lot of people do believe in them.