Gorillas are in danger of being wiped out by the Ebola virus. I feel like we have limited time to get to know them and understand them and they're going to disappear - that's terrifically sad. Wouldn't it be great if we could stop that?
The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare no matter what happens to the world that's not equity it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.