Raise 'Em Up....

Saturday morning I told Brent that I had a revelation this weekend: talking to Christopher about politics and life philosophy and I realized that he functioned from a moral center that was pretty close to the same as mine was growing up.

Which shouldn't seem odd, he is my child after all, but I grew up in the church and the morals were dictated from "On High" and he was raised without any religion at all.

Then I realized that though I abandoned the church, I didn't abandon the morals. Unlike a lot of Evangelicals that seemed to have stayed with the church and abandoned their morals.

So Brent and I raised Christopher with that same center of "right." If you have more you should give more. If you see someone that needs your help, you should help them. If someone is hungry you feed them. If they are naked you clothe them. You know, the basics. We just did it with the belief system of this is the right thing to do, not do this or you will get punished by GOD!

Humanists label it good without god.

We just called it being a decent person.

When we talk about politics and beliefs Brent and I usually say that he's more liberal than we are. He way more liberal than Brent and a little more liberal than I am. His philosophies would be considered far left. But after my revelation on Saturday I really paid attention the next time we talked political policy and I realized that he's radical alright, he's radically kind.

Now, yes, you have to get past the language (if you aren't me) and realize that there are perfectly kind people who say things like "fuck that guy" but when you break down what he wants (what most of these kids today who are considered radical want) it's basic human decency.

I saw something the other day that struck me and I wish I would have saved it so I could get the wording right but it was basically: You call me radical for wanting to tax the rich. But all I want is the homeless housed, the hungry fed, the sick to have health care and an opportunity for a better life for everyone and for the rich to be a little less rich. I thought, yep. That's really it. It's the basic "How much do you need?" argument. And there are those that fall on the side of "As much as I can get." and those that don't.

I don't have an issue (and neither does Christopher) with millionaires. With people having a lot of money. But...billionaires? Really? That seems like a failure in the system. A hoarding reward. That money should be taxed more heavily. And guess what? They would still be fantastically wealthy. The difference would be that someone else wouldn't starve.

We have this really fucked up idea that there isn't enough in the world and we need to get ours before the other guy. But there is a lot. Plenty really. If we just stepped back and looked at the distribution again.

Conservatives love to quote Thatcher that the problem with spending other people's money is that eventually you run out.

But do you? It's such a weird way to view a resource that is constantly renewing itself.

I mean, be honest here. Do you think Jeff Bezos would be any worse off if he had less than he has now? Even if it were a significant amount less. He'd still be almost unimaginably rich. He just went through a divorce and they split the assets and he's still fabulously wealthy.

And we have a failing infrastructure and kids who won't eat because school is on break so the cafeteria is closed and someone who is about to get a health diagnosis that will bankrupt their family.

And if I tell you that we need a progressive tax that is ironclad and doesn't have loopholes so the rich actually pay their share and business actually pay ANY taxes you would say I was a socialist and how dare I?

And yes, there are billionaires who set up charitable foundations and give huge chunks of their money away and that's great. But...

There are huge tax breaks for doing that. So they end up making money while doing it. Which is great business sense. But it's still not really solving all of the problems that could be solved with a little more focused spending.

And they could still do that if they were paying their share of taxes as well. There is nothing that would prevent them from setting up foundations and focusing on their pet projects. But if there wasn't the giant tax break, would they?

Good without a tax break?

I'm not sure that the ideas of these kids today will catch on. I hope they do. I hope that there is a moment that happens where people look at the income disparity and realize that it's too much. I hope that there is a time when people realize that no matter what your zip code is we shouldn't say you get to starve. I hope that someday we all realize that there is enough in the world for everyone, we just need to spread it out a little better.

Good without god.
Wealth without hoarding.
Do the most with what you have.
Do the best for others as well as for yourself.

Call me a radical.