Season 4 Podcast 53 Self-Reliance Concept 2 False Charity
I have selected twelve concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance. Each concept expands the virtues and variations of Self-Reliance or warns of the vices of the ways we forfeit Self Reliance:
· Concept 1: Blind Obedience
· Concept 2: False Charity
· Concept 3: Truth
· Concept 4: Faith
· Concept 5: Non-Conformist
· Concept 6: To Thine Own Self Be True
· Concept 7: Self-Reliance
· Concept 8: Character
· Concept 9: God
· Concept 10: Solitude
In this Podcast, we shall discuss Concept Number Two: False Charity.
“Then, again, do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold; for them I will go to prison, if need be; but your miscellaneous popular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots; and the thousand-fold Relief Societies;—though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.”
Socialists, of course, today would be offended by Emerson, but Emerson’s point is profoundly American. We are being bullied by the left to support the poor without requiring anything in return. In fact, they have discovered that by using taxpayer money to bribe the poor they can win their votes, enslave their bodies, and secure for themselves longevity in office. It is for that reason that we are now over 30 trillion dollars in debt.
It is the left’s ideology of redistribution of wealth. Enforced charity destroys self-reliance. The left robs from the rich to give to the poor. The left operates on the principle that everyone’s vote is for sale to the highest bidder. Socialism is built into their agenda.
The following list is from the 2016 Socialist Democratic platform:
· Raise Incomes and Restore Economic Security for the Middle Class.
· Raising Workers’ Wages
· Protecting Workers’ Fundamental Rights
· Supporting Working Families
· Helping More Workers Share in Near-Record Corporate Profits
A cursory look at the democratic platform reveals its true intent. The only way they can “raise incomes and restore economic security to the middle class” is to do away with the free-market system and increase government regulations. The left wishes to control the economy through redistribution of wealth, thus increasing taxes on the middle class and the wealthy.
To raise worker’s wages, they must dictate minimum wage, thus destroying small businesses and inflating prices. Notice how intrusive the democratic socialists have become.
They want to protect worker’s fundamental rights. The job of the federal government is to enforce the Bill of Rights equally for all its citizens. The left is dividing America into a class system and favoring one class over another. They claim to “support working families.” That clearly refers to redistribution of wealth for all families are working families. Their view of supporting working families is to equalize wealth through government control, not self-reliance.
