I would like to add that before the government started taking over the "charity" business private citizens were much more generous with time and money.
When I first moved to NYC at 21, there was a lovely couple down the hall from my apartment who were in their seventies. We became close friends, and they told me that before the government started "infringing" on their charity work, they belonged to a group (white) who made sure that kids in Harlem had a playground, that no young girl went without a nice prom dress, and a zillion other things they did to support kids who were "without." So it's important to recognize that people are more generous when the government isn't doing "their" charity work and in the bargain taxing them heavily to "help" the ones they were already helping in the best sense of that word.
This is an excellent article—your articulation of genuine philosophy is admirable.
The only point I would add is that people help others simply because it brings them joy to do so, and because their help represents an objective value to the person in need. It’s objectively moral to choose to perform a good deed or to extend help to those in need simply in the spirit of human solidarity. To do so, I need not do the calculus of what’s in it for me. Even if nothing was in it for me, knowledge that I did good is enough.
I would like to add that before the government started taking over the "charity" business private citizens were much more generous with time and money.
When I first moved to NYC at 21, there was a lovely couple down the hall from my apartment who were in their seventies. We became close friends, and they told me that before the government started "infringing" on their charity work, they belonged to a group (white) who made sure that kids in Harlem had a playground, that no young girl went without a nice prom dress, and a zillion other things they did to support kids who were "without." So it's important to recognize that people are more generous when the government isn't doing "their" charity work and in the bargain taxing them heavily to "help" the ones they were already helping in the best sense of that word.
Superb.
This is an excellent article—your articulation of genuine philosophy is admirable.
The only point I would add is that people help others simply because it brings them joy to do so, and because their help represents an objective value to the person in need. It’s objectively moral to choose to perform a good deed or to extend help to those in need simply in the spirit of human solidarity. To do so, I need not do the calculus of what’s in it for me. Even if nothing was in it for me, knowledge that I did good is enough.