The Good Samaritan was a Democrat if you are a Republican and a Republican if you are a Democrat.
Or the best of what we call an American, but not if acting alone.
Let’s imagine for the moment that we are neither Democrats nor Republicans. Just Americans. From this starting point how might we see the role of government and the policies we should support?
First, a little background. We do seem to care about the welfare of each other. Charitable causes spend a lot of money on TV adds to encourage donations. They wouldn’t be doing this if they thought their audience was a nest of Scrooges. They know their audience, receiving contributions by effectively showing extreme need.
And we are a very rich nation as measured by the strength of our farms and factories, the skills of our citizens, and the discoveries of our scientists. Our overall wealth and strength are truly vast. We reach across light years with our instruments, and we harness aspects of the quantum world to achieve ever greater power. We create new materials. We design logical calculators that rival the human brain. We have broken free of so many of the limitations that have faced and defeated past generations. Our ability to produce the vaccines, the medical and surgical treatments, the food and comfort that so many lack, grows exponentially.
So, as an American, I would want to remind my country that we have the wherewithal and perhaps the desire to care for those who are in need and ensure a high quality of life for all—here in our towns, here in our nation, and beyond.
All this leads to two things, that I hope we can all seriously consider. First, let’s be charitable, as individuals to our neighbor, and to the good causes that appeal to our hearts this time of year. But second, let’s challenge each other to go the rest of the way. Private giving is valuable. It identifies needs and takes initial steps to meet such needs. But government help is also essential.
A prominent clergyman, William Sloan Coffin, once posed, in a sermon, the modern dilemma of the good Samaritan. Suppose, he said, you find a man injured on the streets of New York. Do you take him to your dwelling and heal his injuries?
If he is seriously injured, or has had a heart attack, you alone can do little to save his life. But if you call 911, within minutes a team of specialists with the latest equipment might be at your side.
Dr. Coffin asked his congregation how a “good Samaritan” should act in today’s world. He said vote for and elect leaders who will ensure we have, on every street and at every bedside, a state-of-the-art public health system, from public health facilities to fast emergency response to full hospital care.
Isn’t that Socialism or something like that? No, looked at as I do, it is Capitalism at its best. Our public health facilities utilize the products of many thousands of private companies, depend upon the training of personnel in schools both private and public and utilize a vast system of public provided infrastructure.
In a successful capitalist economy, governments act as agents for the community to provide services that otherwise would not be available, purchasing the products and services from private industry. We can afford and we desperately need community services that neither charity nor private purchases alone can provide (at least not to the extent possible and needed). Economists call these “public goods.” (This understanding of “public goods” is well established by both conservative and liberal economists. Their existence and importance isn’t a Republican or Democrat “thing.” If the term is unfamiliar, it is worth looking up.)
That is, we enjoy such goods as education, public safety, parks and roads, clean water and clear air, and community health services, only if the government works with the private sector, collecting our taxes and purchasing what would otherwise would not be available. Such “purchases” make a society like ours “great.”
We use the authority of government to see that all in the community pay a fair share. That’s how we should look at taxes. We use our vote to ensure that the people who decide what is “fair” (both tax rates and need) are people we trust, who will act intelligently, as our agents, to purchase goods and services for the whole community.
Of course, like every system of human devising, democracy viewed this way is far from perfect.
But far from perfect is often, well, far closer to where we need to be.
Always glad to read comments. I think that this post may need further explanation. I’ll do my best to respond.
Nice essay!