It’s amazing to me how many people think that voting to have government take money by force through taxes to give money to poor people is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral, self righteous, bullying laziness. People need to be fed, medicated, educated clothed, and sheltered, and if we’re compassionate we’ll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gun point.
Penn Jillette, God No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales, 2011
March 23, 2012
QotD: Compassion
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I’m nodding.
Down to church, we have an on-going project to rake yards in the fall for the elderly and infirm in the parish. This is pretty cool, and fun and it feels good. You _want_ to do a good job – what if it was your gramma, eh?
But if the government lined us up on Saturday in a corvée and _told_ us to rake someone’s friggin’ yard? F* that noise.
Taxation is just a corvée, abstracted so it’s not as painful.
Comment by Brian Dunbar — March 23, 2012 @ 14:36