Each person should be expected to provide in proportion to his or her ability, and should be given help in proportion to his or her need for it.
It would not be difficult to determine how the ability to provide and the need for help should be measured.
But it would be most difficult to garner widespread acceptance of the idea that there are those who should be helped. I perceive a common attitude that anyone who needs help can rise above that need simply by self-determination.
Our society is intrinsically unfair to each of us. It's basically doomed.
To some, it seems right that, because they pay taxes, worship a particular god, have a particular level of income, etc. etc., they have more rights than others.
To some, it seems to others that anybody who is wealthy has obtained that wealth from the sweat and labor of other people (hoi polloi) and provides solely for their own.
If there is one ethos that most loudly drives America, it is that each of us has rights that we should actively protect, but others have rights only if they fit a particular ideal and therefore should be denied.
We espouse freedom, but too often define it as something that others should enjoy only if they do as we believe they should.
It is difficult to see how the situation could be changed for the better without introducing more government. Because, as individuals, we continually demonstrate that we cannot be trusted to do right by others.
It would not be difficult to determine how the ability to provide and the need for help should be measured.
But it would be most difficult to garner widespread acceptance of the idea that there are those who should be helped. I perceive a common attitude that anyone who needs help can rise above that need simply by self-determination.
Our society is intrinsically unfair to each of us. It's basically doomed.
To some, it seems right that, because they pay taxes, worship a particular god, have a particular level of income, etc. etc., they have more rights than others.
To some, it seems to others that anybody who is wealthy has obtained that wealth from the sweat and labor of other people (hoi polloi) and provides solely for their own.
If there is one ethos that most loudly drives America, it is that each of us has rights that we should actively protect, but others have rights only if they fit a particular ideal and therefore should be denied.
We espouse freedom, but too often define it as something that others should enjoy only if they do as we believe they should.
It is difficult to see how the situation could be changed for the better without introducing more government. Because, as individuals, we continually demonstrate that we cannot be trusted to do right by others.