My Brother's Keeper

My economics teacher in college opened the first lecture in my macro economics class with Cain's question to God: "Am I my brother's keeper?" It's the fundamental tension at the heart of all of our domestic political decisions. What resposibility do you have for your fellow citizen. Where do you draw the line?

As a thought exercise, try this. What if tax bills came with a receipt. It's not a big deal right? Your department store can itemize everything down to the penny, including the sale price, and your buy 1 get 1 coupon. It's all right there. What if the federal govenment did the same thing? What are you willing to pay for? What not? What would make you feel happy to pay for? What would make you feel angry?

Would you buy a rifle for a soldier?
Would you pay a teacher?
Would you pay a doctor a fellow citizen that you'll never meet?
Would you pay a public defender?
Would you buy a bomb for a jet?
Would you buy prescription drugs for a senior citizen?
Would you pay for a part of a road?
Would you buy part of a questionable mortgage to help a bank out?
Would you give money to someone without a job?
Would you go out and buy a bunch of stock in a Wall Street bank that was in trouble?
Would you buy food for someone without a job?
Would you pay for someone with no marketable skill to learn a trade?
Would you give money to a retired person?
Would you pay to fund a theater performance?
Would you pay to do environmental cleanup?

Fine questions all. Tough answers, to be sure. The thing of it is we create a big pot, dump all the money into it, stir and distribute. It gets a lot easier to distribute when it goes that way doesn't it? We don't even have to think about it.