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1/ "It's not fair that someone should get a better deal than I did."
This argument underlies a LOT of conservative thinking. "I work hard to earn what I have; why should some deadbeat get free groceries while I'm busting my butt?"
This argument underlies a LOT of conservative thinking. "I work hard to earn what I have; why should some deadbeat get free groceries while I'm busting my butt?"
2/ Remember TARP? The big bank bail-out after the mortgage bubble popped and all those banks were holding mortgages that people couldn't pay?
There were basically two ways we could have bailed out the banks: we could have paid off the bad mortgages...
There were basically two ways we could have bailed out the banks: we could have paid off the bad mortgages...
3/ ...in which case the money would have ended up with the banks, and a bunch of people would have got to keep their houses.
Or, we could just give the money directly to the banks, so they would be saved; but a bunch of people would be foreclosed on and lose their houses.
Or, we could just give the money directly to the banks, so they would be saved; but a bunch of people would be foreclosed on and lose their houses.
4/ There was so much backlash to the first idea it was politically impossible. "Why do those deadbeats get a free house when I'm still paying off my mortgage?"
And I get it: it's deeply unfair. It's galling to sacrifice for something and then see someone get it for free.
And I get it: it's deeply unfair. It's galling to sacrifice for something and then see someone get it for free.
5/ Here's something to think about, though. You know who doesn't agree with that position? Jesus.
Seriously, he has a whole parable about exactly this kind of thinking. Matthew 20:1-16, the story of the laborers in the vineyard.
Seriously, he has a whole parable about exactly this kind of thinking. Matthew 20:1-16, the story of the laborers in the vineyard.
6/ You remember the story: guy who owns a vineyard goes out in the morning and hires some workers to work all day; offers to pay them a denarius each -- a standard day's wage at the time. They agree.
7/ At noon, he goes and hires more workers, for the same wage. And again in the evening, also offering a denarius each.
8/ At the end of the day, the owner pays off all the workers, giving them each a denarius - the ones who worked for half an hour in the cool evening, and the ones who worked all day in the sweltering sun. Everyone got the same wage.
9/ The guys who worked all day were pissed off, and argued that they deserved more because they worked harder. And the owner said, "Dudes, you got exactly what we agreed on, and you were happy to be offered it this morning. It's no skin off your nose what I give someone else."
10/ Modern conservatives are the laborers who worked all day long, and are angry that someone else might possibly be getting the same reward for less effort.
11/ I sympathize with the feeling. But the owner of the vineyard is right: you were happy enough with the deal you got. Someone else getting a different deal, even a better one, doesn't actually harm you. It just makes you feel butthurt.
12/12 Here endeth the lesson.
