Is virtue really its own reward?

[grasswire]

Discuss.

[Orrex]

1. I receive a crsip five dollar bill every time I do something virtuous

I'm up to $15 dollars for the year. Woo hoo!

[HopeHoops]

2. Unless it's ass, gas, or grass, no.

:hippie:

[mysuzuki2]

3. more like its own punishment!

[Mazdak]

4. Things like "virtue" are relative.

Statements like 'virtue is its own reward' exist because people want to put their concept of virtues on a pedestal. So, in the end it's not really it's own reward, but it might be rewarding to others to see how they can try and control others.

[grasswire]

7. that's an interesting perspective

I was thinking that perhaps the better question is this:

Is the reward from virtue greater than the reward from acting without virtue?

In other words, many people live virtuous lives and are harmed or do not do as well as people who do not act in virtue.

Take George W. Bush for example. Compare him to a simple worker who has lived the Boy Scout life -- a virtuous life. And yet W has been rewarded over and over again for doing bad. And the simple worker may have been foreclosed, unemployed.

How does the sentiment apply?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. Boomerangs are their own reward too. n/t

[necso]

6. Perhaps an intended meaning is "Don't expect any other reward." /nt

[Liberal Veteran]

8. No. That's just a rumor started by cheapskates who don't want to pay for my virtues.