Wiseacre
Retired USAF Chief
This is more ethics and philosophy than religion, deaing with how much to help someone else, if at all. My father was a WWII and Korean war vet, even did tie in Vietname before he retired from the US Army. He was a tough love dad, nothing was given to us outside of birthdays and Xmas; We were expected to earn money over and above the chores we had to do at home. As a result, we grew up expecting no handouts and did not believe we were entitled to anything we didn't earn. Do you think he was wrong?
It seems to me that the core of self respect and self esteem is the sense of self sufficiency, how can you be proud of yourself if you can't take care of yourself? Some people lack the physical or mental ability to do that, but most of us could if we had to. I and my siblings were taught that we had to, and now I know that no matter what happens in the future I'm not dependent on anyone else.
That sense of dependency, do you think that as a society we are doing the right thing by enacting policies and programs that foster it? I don't think humans should feel entitled, we should not be creating a society that takes care of everyone who desires it, or isolating them from the risks and rewards of maing their own decisions and living with the consequences. I think to do so diminishes the chances for an honorable life filled with the respect and admiration of others. Who can feel proud of themselves for taking money from others who earned it, by way of the gov't?
Some say it's only fair to redistribute wealth from those who have it to those who don't. I have the opposite view, it is unfair to rob the less fortunate of the motivation to achieve some degree of success on their own by providing unearned sustenance for them. What we need to be doing is to enact ideas that encourage the risktaking and improve the chances for that success. Shorten but do not remove the odds of failure, and increase the number of opportunities.
It seems to me that the core of self respect and self esteem is the sense of self sufficiency, how can you be proud of yourself if you can't take care of yourself? Some people lack the physical or mental ability to do that, but most of us could if we had to. I and my siblings were taught that we had to, and now I know that no matter what happens in the future I'm not dependent on anyone else.
That sense of dependency, do you think that as a society we are doing the right thing by enacting policies and programs that foster it? I don't think humans should feel entitled, we should not be creating a society that takes care of everyone who desires it, or isolating them from the risks and rewards of maing their own decisions and living with the consequences. I think to do so diminishes the chances for an honorable life filled with the respect and admiration of others. Who can feel proud of themselves for taking money from others who earned it, by way of the gov't?
Some say it's only fair to redistribute wealth from those who have it to those who don't. I have the opposite view, it is unfair to rob the less fortunate of the motivation to achieve some degree of success on their own by providing unearned sustenance for them. What we need to be doing is to enact ideas that encourage the risktaking and improve the chances for that success. Shorten but do not remove the odds of failure, and increase the number of opportunities.