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Loss of morality comes hand and hand with socialism. Once people accept the concept that they deserve something they have not worked for, every other rationalization of moral character is easily rationalized.
As soon as the human ego can rationalize that it is acceptable to forcefully take the fruits of another's labor due to some sort of vain sense of entitlement, then all other crime is also subject to rationalization under that standard.
There was once a culture in this country in which people truly believed that charity was shameful and that a person paid for charity with their human self respect.
Today peoples behavior is only kept in check to the degree that they believe they will be caught and punished for a crime.
It all boils down to peoples vanity and the belief that they are somehow entitled to something which they themselves have not created, or earned.
Al Pacino did a movie some years ago in which he portrayed Satan, at the end of the movie he had a line in which he said that vanity was his favorite sin, the meaning being that vanity or the feeling of entitlement of something unearned is the cornerstone of all other sins, and the downfall of every civilization.

27 comments

old comment by nazani14

Well, keep an eye on Kansas and see how their grand experiment is self-sufficiency plays out. Some grad student will have fun writing a thesis comparing them to the Ik tribe of Uganda.

As John Winthrop led a group of English Puritans to Massachusetts Bay in 1630, he imparted the "model of Christian charity" that would define their colony. "We must bear one another's burdens," he told his fellow settlers. "We must not look only on our own things but also on the things of our brethren." In settlements like Jamestown and Plymouth, neighbors depended on one another to survive harsh winters and privation. The settlers raised barns, hosted quilting bees, and built common areas. "Every community established in the Bay Colony was obligated to take care of its own legal inhabitants," wrote University of Connecticut historian Robert Gross.

"In the mid- to late 18th century, public service became less of a Christian mission and more of a civic duty. Benjamin Franklin, who would go on to establish a towering position in American history as a newspaper publisher, signer of the Declaration of Independence, diplomat, and inventor, led the way. When the streets of Philadelphia needed sweeping or lighting or paving, he gathered men and resources to the task. When fires threatened to destroy the city, he organized the nation's first volunteer fire company, an idea so compelling that cities up and down the Atlantic seaboard adopted it. "Franklin could be called the Founding Father of American voluntarism," says historian and biographer H.W. Brands. He also began an insurance company, a voluntary militia, and a philosophical societyall, notes Brands, "based on the principle of individuals working together, uncoerced, for the common good."
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/10/18/the-distinctly-american-tradition-of-charity

old comment by Swede

Socialism is to share with each other, like Jesus and his disciples did. It's getting an equal part of what we have created together.
It's quite the opposite of your idea, actually.
People who are born to wealth quickly accept the concept that they deserve something they have not worked for.
The Waltons have apparently rationalized that it is acceptable to forcefully take the fruits of their employees labor, due to some sort of vain sense of entitlement, AND to have the government subsidizing their low wages with food stamps and Medicaid to their employees.

Charity is rich people making themselves feel generous by giving money to poor people. Welfare is equal people sharing society's wealth equally.

YOU might only be kept in check by the belief that you'll be caught and punished. I am "kept in check" because I don't want to harm other people, or infringe on their human rights.

How much have Dubbya Shrub created or earned? How about Paris Hilton? Jaden and Willow Smith? The Osborne kids?
It's mostly kids born to rich people, who are the vain ones, who feel entitled to things they have neither created nor earned. People born to poor people know that if they don't earn, there will be no food on the table.

old comment by

The social programs that were dubbed by a right-winger as "entitlements" are not charity. They are insurance programs that every working person pays into, upon which they can draw if they land on hard times. They are no different than any other insurance you might purchase, except that it costs less than private insurance due to lack of profit motive in the system, it's harder to get, and you get grilled, investigated, and generally treated like a criminal when you need to apply for it.

Also, your favorite boogeyman, welfare, must be PAID BACK. What if you and your family had paid for car insurance for generations, but no one in the family had ever used it, until finally, one night, through no fault of your own, you get totalled by a drunk driver. Then, when you file a claim to get your car fixed, you're threatened with jail if you have a dollar over $40 that you forget to mention, and threatened again with jail if you don't repay the money withing a certain time frame? And then people start accusing you of taking charity for expecting to be able to use benefits you and your family PAID FOR? You'd be pretty fucking outraged, right? Yeah, same thing.

old comment by i-suck-at-making-username

@Reynardine Fascinating, so the 1% literally suck the money out of your pockets, using their magical capitalism powers?
Don't be naive, the government is the entity taking your money, not the 1%.
Ah... but that puts you socialists in quite a pickle doesn't it? Considering that you think it just that the government violates people's property rights to "redistribute the wealth"?
You made your bed, now lie in it.

@Swede Funny, America, at least, is not based on "equal people sharing society's wealth equally". It is based on the principle that each individual is entitled to life, liberty, the property they earn, and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of it. Not to happiness or success itself. For the brainchildren of your ever-so-loving mentality, look to the collapsed soviet Union, Cuba, Vietnam, and other leftist "paradises".

@Nicholas Krizov Wow, you are brainwashed. Capitalism is a brilliant system, because it enables everyone to benefit through everyone striving for their own benefit, instead of forcing some to sacrifice for "the good of the whole". "The whole" does not exist, it is made up of individuals, and violating one individual's rights is equivalent to betraying humanity as a whole.