The Common Good
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Robert Pawlicki takes a look at the tales we tell ourselves to rationalize the perpetuation of privacy and deprivation and at the consequences thereof to the polity. Here’s a little bit of the article; follow the link for the rest.
- “We worked hard for our wealth, and those who aren’t well-off are either inferior or lazy.”
- “We live in the land of the free, and anyone putting their nose to the grindstone can make a good living.”
- “Too many poor people are living off of the government because they want to.”
- “Giving money to the poor is socialism.”
Such beliefs, and many more, contribute to political policies that prevent the government from additional funding of public schools, offering government-paid preschool education and national health care, thereby preventing all citizens a necessary platform from which to move forward. Instead, the threat that the poor will have additional assistance to raise out of poverty grows the fear that some portion of American society will get something for nothing — or that we’d have to pay more taxes.