“You present a cake to your family. Is it fairer to: a) give everybody a slice of [equal] size, or b) make everybody fight with broadswords, so they all have [equality of] opportunity to win the entire cake for themselves?”—
Comments, Slacktivist: Jason DeParle on Mothers and Their Children
I would give them equal slices of cake and broadswords. But that’s just me.
While certainly a nice sentiment, it’s foolish to extend the dynamic of a family - with its close relationships, genetic bonds, emotional entanglements, and shared experiences - to the world at large. The world at large is not party to my private decisions like my family is. They don’t have the vested interest in my well-being like my family does. They wouldn’t be there when I got a flat tire, or the stomach flu, or to hear my gripes about that unpleasant co-worker - and they needn’t be. The world at large needn’t be forced to make sacrifices for my well-being. And, in turn, the world at large needn’t be forced to suffer the consequences of my mistakes. They shouldn’t have to bail me out because I made bad investments with my time and resources.
I take offense when people try to dilute the love of my actual family by rhetorically lumping the rest of humanity with them. If I buy a cake for my family, I’ll distribute it in whatever way makes me and my family most happy - even excluding myself from taking a slice. How dare anyone try to make me treat strangers the way I treat my daughters in order to justify their redistributive whims.
If someone wants to treat the world like his family - for religious, or ecological, or for any selfish reason, really - nobody is stopping him. But no one should be forced to do so. No one should be threatened with violence and rape cages if they don’t relinquish portions of his or her life in ways central planners (and their cronies) demand. And that’s exactly what DeParle is arguing.
As Bastiat said, “True charity does not begin with the robbery of taxation…”
Charity is not charitable, it is not noble, when it is forced.
Related:
All of this ^^^
