Laudato Si
Don Stott over at Whiskey & Gunpowder had an interesting column this last week:
One of life’s most blessed things, is to give. I mean it! Giving, voluntarily, to a cause, person, group, or candidate, really gives one a sense of accomplishment. At least it does me. Regardless of ones economic situation, giving to who or what one considers important, is one of the things which can really give life some meaning.
. . . [W]hen I give to a cause or person, I want to be certain that the cause or person is a worthwhile cause or person. In times past, when a charity outfit existed and gave to the poor or needy, they had a woodshed out back, and the recipient was made to work for his or her handout, which is as it should be. I will give to help my neighborhood, town, state, or even nation.
. . .
The point is, that whether you wish to give to the homeless, or whoever or whatever you wish to give to, it will be a blessing to you. But suppose you were forced to give to a cause you despised? Suppose you were forced to give to a foreign nation you disliked, or a charity you hated? This is what is happening to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars every week, or maybe more. Your dollars, to the tune of $50 billion of them, and it will be more, believe me, has been sent to bail out Greece. I don’t want to bail out Greece, as it is their problem, not mine. The Germans have sent a lot more, to their loathing. Why do the Greeks need to be bailed out? Because their politicians, like those in D.C. have spent and spent, and spent, in order to get re-elected, and they have bankrupted Greece, just like the D.C. Gang has bankrupted America. The politicos in Spain and Portugal have done the same thing. No citizen in Greece, Spain, or Portugal voted to bankrupt their respective nations, and neither did we, but it happened, thanks to a small group of politicians in every nation.
Politicians have ALWAYS invented causes, bureaucracies, departments, and cabinet positions, which cost huge sums of dollars, and now euros, which will “benefit,” “protect,” or some such nonsense, which are damned lies 99% of the time. This spending, or forced charity, has bankrupted America, Spain, Portugal, Greece, etc. Japan, the UK, America, Mexico, and others may fall in line, and destroy the entire world’s currency and economics, which is why we have gold and silver. They are immune to political votes and destruction.
. . .
Forced giving, in the form of taxation and currency degradation, throughout the world, should not exist, and it just as simple as that. Our Constitution limits the power of government, and 99% of what world governments do, is unjust to their constituencies, and actual robbery and wholesale theft. My parents thought that the public school system was abysmal in the late 40’s and early 50’s, and took me out of it, but they were hundreds of percentage points better then than they are now. Don’t blame the teacher’s unions any more than the entire concept of “public” anything, be it rest rooms, schools, housing, or hundreds of bailouts, subsidies, and benefits. All these things are given to the weak sector of the population or business world, at the expense of, and dragging down the strong. If they are weak and stupid, they should fail by their own devices, and not be allowed to hang on at my expense, your expense, or the expense of the world’s taxpayers . . . .
Read the rest of it here. Of course, the charities and causes I would give to vastly differ from this author and would not be so partisan. But the underlying point, about forced charity, is something I agree with in totality…
In truth, the partisanship of this article kinda disappoints (you can tell how partisan it is if you read the actual essay and not this excerpt). For such a great title, this article could’ve been really bad ass…