Family Government, Pt. 2

So, about a million days ago I wrote about why socialism, at least on a family level, is bad. As mentioned before, when things are taken, the taker and the took from miss out on benefits. I focused on what the taker loses in the last post. In this post, I'm going to focus on what the taken from misses when the opportunity to "give" is removed.

If daughter A has $32.50 and daughter T needs $3 more to buy a DS game, you can be sure an interesting conversation will ensue. A used DS game typically costs about $25 at the GameStop, (my kids never buy new-- topic for another blog.) Which means that daughter A has about $4 that she doesn't need after paying for the game and taxes (money the government takes from you to pay for things like police, schools and roads). Daughter T will then ask if she can have $3, with the promise to share the game, letting A play first and whenever she wants, unless T herself is playing it.

A is always excited at sharing her excess $. She really and truly understands the meaning of giving. She knows her heart feels happy when she gives what she doesn't need. This is obvious by the smile on A's face and the excitement in her voice when she explains to me the terms of the $ giving. T is very grateful for the fact that A has shared and recognizes the goodness in her sister. T feels grateful and love toward A and shows it by keeping her promise and hugging. These feelings of love and gratitude extend beyond the store walls, into the van and our home. Seriously, there is peace for quite some time as the sisters share with each other, and their younger siblings.

The happy feelings associated with giving are universal. They extend to all who give willingly and with love. They come when we are honest about what we can give: time, talents, smile or money. When the government mandates that we share what is rightfully ours, those good feelings do not surface because the choice to give is not our own. It's the choosing itself that brings the feelings of happiness. Knowing that we did something good because that's the kind of person we are. We can also often directly see the benefits of our giving, when we give it. We get a thank you, a smile in return or a glimpse at the long term benefits of our gift. We have a personal relationship with the receiver.

The humble feelings associated with receiving are also universal. When we really and truly need, there is a unique feeling in the pit of our stomachs. A certain, I don't know, knot of emptiness. When that knot is relieved through the gift of a helping hand, food or $ donation, we feel our relief and gratitude. We understand what it means to be on the receiving end, and these feelings encourage us to give what we can, when we can. A pay it forward attitude. We feel our connection to humanity through the gift, we feel loved.

When the government takes and gives, the connection is lost. The gift becomes a tax. The humility becomes entitlement. And let's face it, if I give $10 to the guy pushing the grocery cart laden with blankets and empty soda cans, he gets $10. If I give it to the government to give to him, maybe he'll get $5. (A certain type of math I didn't learn at Pinelands.)

As a family, we're experiencing a time when we are less able to give. I'm realizing exactly how selfish I was prior to our personal economic downturn. I know that when we emerge from this recession, I will be more giving of my financial resources. I suppose if we had never had this need, I wouldn't understand this about myself. In the meantime, I am giving what I do have. My time, my talents. Perhaps instead of looking to the government for a hand-out, we should look to each other to see what we can share, what we can give to each other.