Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Disaster Area
CNN reports that over 200 million dollars have been contributed to aid Haiti. That's 200 million dollars, much of which likely came from small donations given by regular middle class folks. The compassion at work in something like this is almost staggering and too often unexpected in the cynicism of our everyday lives. Truth be told however, this kind of thing happens all the time. Disasters often bring out the best in those who are not actively experiencing them but who are presented with with facts in such a way that it stirs those ever present feelings of empathy and camaraderie towards others. Decent, hard-working people with not a lot to give, all giving a little and amounting to something big for the benefit of others. Why is it then, that when politicians advocate taxing the richest 1-5% of the population in order to fund services that would benefit the country at large, these same decent, hard-working people who are willing to donate to worthy causes and who are not even being targeted by these taxes, speak out so vehemently against it? Is it misinformation? Is it principle? Is it the discrepancy between taxation and donation? Maybe we should declare the United States a perpetual disaster area and wait for the donations to flood in. I'm not trying to belittle anyone's generosity in regards to the Haiti situation, but when the same people who are outraged over million and billionaires not pledging enough money towards the relief effort are also the people who tear out their hair and beat their chests at the idea of taxing those same million and billionaires, I can't help but be overwhelmed by the hypocrisy.
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I don't think you understand the concept of hypocrisy. There is a huge difference between "so-and-so ought to do X" and "If so-and-so doesn't do X, so-and-so must be thrown into a cage". If the difference is not immediate and apparent, you have some reasoning skills to work on.
ReplyDeletePerhaps "hypocrisy" is a little overzealous in this case. The point is that people have an overwhelming capacity for compassion that often becomes most evident in times of crisis. People give and expect others to give, especially those who have more and therefore can give more. When politicians advocate charging those who have more so that their money can be redistributed through services and otherwise to those who have less, the same people who expect those who have more to give more in a crisis are often among those who oppose such legislation. From my point of view I expect those how have more to give more in both donations and taxes for crises and not. It may not be hypocritical, but at the very least I find it misguided and illogical when people support the one but not the other.
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