It Is Better To Give Than To Receive

by Andy Haaf

Walter E. Williams published an article recently called Evil Concealed by Money. Here are some excerpts I found interesting:

"Imagine there's an elderly widow down the street from you. She has neither the strength to mow her lawn nor enough money to hire someone to do it. Here's my question to you that I'm almost afraid for the answer: Would you support a government mandate that forces one of your neighbors to mow the lady's lawn each week? If he failed to follow the government orders, would you approve of some kind of punishment ranging from house arrest and fines to imprisonment? I'm hoping that the average American would condemn such a government mandate because it would be a form of slavery, the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

Would there be the same condemnation if instead of the government forcing your neighbor to physically mow the widow's lawn, the government forced him to give the lady $40 of his weekly earnings? That way the widow could hire someone to mow her lawn. I'd say that there is little difference between the mandates. While the mandate's mechanism differs, it is nonetheless the forcible use of one person to serve the purposes of another.

Probably most Americans would have a clearer conscience if all the neighbors were forced to put money in a government pot and a government agency would send the widow a weekly sum of $40 to hire someone to mow her lawn. This mechanism makes the particular victim invisible but it still boils down to one person being forcibly used to serve the purposes of another. Putting the money into a government pot makes palatable acts that would otherwise be deemed morally offensive.

This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one's fellow man. Helping one's fellow man in need, by reaching into one's own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another's pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation."

While I would not use his exact words in selling his ideas, this example is precisely what drives me nuts about today's politicians (on both sides) on taxation and other matters of social engineering or "justice". Rather than encourage an environment for donating of time and money they employ methods which force our hand and our wallets.

Think about it. What if instead of taking more and more from those with means (and in many cases without), we devised a way to make it easier to help others? Not only would people get the services they need but those of us who gave would feel blessed to be a part of it. We have millions of wonderful and caring people in this Country. Why not unleash that enthusiasm for giving? I say the results could be exponentially greater.

I wrote about this a while back on my personal blog how Every American Should Watch Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. It is an amazing example of how people and businesses come together to help others in need. My wife and I have yet to watch with dry eyes. Not only do you shed tears of sadness for the hardships people face, but you shed tears of joy when you see the wonderful gift presented to them. The challenge with the show however is they only have the opportunity to touch a limited set of lives. Our calling as conservatives is to show how our principle of empowering others can scale to touch millions.

Through churches or other non-profit groups we inspire and empower people to give time and money so others who fall on tough times can get relief. People have a difficult time paying their mortgages and bailing out Citi and others do not help most of them. I would feel better about donating a portion of my income to a group which helped people directly versus having it taken from me and only a fraction actually helps those in need. Robin Hood gave directly to the poor, right? He did not create a "program" which very few benefitted from ;)

I am not suggesting we remove all taxes and all Government programs. However, I am suggesting there is a tremendous opportunity to encourage giving to solve or at least provide relief to many of the hardships people face.

As Walter states above, coercion and force of hand will not sustain nor maximize benefits to those in need. One of her neighbors might have donated the $40 for lawn care or mowed the lawn themselves and felt great as a result, but we will never know ... will we.