Tuesday, October 18, 2011

For the love of money

It has been a while since I posted to this BLOG. I have just sort of been in a dry spell as far as ideas. I decided to post on a subject that is far too wide to say anything especially cogent about. That is money and the relative merits of what it does to drive or lessen our basic characters.

Over the past couple of months I have made it a point to volunteer to feed the homeless at the local shelter. This is an effort by our community to deliver some of the charitable means that are garnered by many. The United Way and part of the city of Tallahassee's budget are pointed in this direction. Food and commodities are made available from those budget funds. What is needed are actual boots on the ground to serve the food to the 150-200 consistently hungry folks that are the recipients of this effort. I generally feel good about participating.

This morning I happened on to a live Senate hearing on the subject of charitable dollars and their eligibility as tax deductions. Several members of a committee chaired by Utah's Orrin Hatch queried numerous holy men who represented those who cling steadily to that tax deduction allowance. It seems that the recession is having its toll on those funds. People are more in survival mode than ever at the lower rungs of our society. The question on the table, as I watched, was would it be possible to set limits on what people gave or put a bottom level on how much you could give and still deduct it from your taxes. There was great animus reflected amongst the participants.

There is also this phenomena ongoing called "occupy wall street". This is an effort that seems to take its bearing from the communist manifesto. It seems that the homogeneity of this group is the theme that they represent the 99% of Americans who think that corporate greed is a decidedly bad thing. I for one think it is dangerous to qualify the free enterprise system, the root of capitalism, as "greed".

This system has fostered the greatest society that has ever peopled the planet. What is the solution according to these misdirected people is to attack our system and demand that there be a redistribution of wealth. That would flow from the greedy one percent of the haves to the 99% of the have nots. Those who have applied their creativity and taken great risks and become wealthy would, if the anti-greed people have their way, give all their money to them.

I feel that what they fail to see is that the same love of money prevails in their minds as it does in the minds of those who have strived to attain wealth. They seem to take the position that their thirst for money is more noble than the wealthy.

I do not see a demarcation between the two camps.

Do yourself a favor and copy and paste this little video link into your browser. Takes 2 minutes to run and is a quick study from a great mind.

http://dauckster.posterous.com/a-31-year-old-video-clip-absolutely-worth-you