False Compassion

What do you visualize when I say the word compassion? How would you define it? Would an act of compassion be obvious when you come across it? These days, the liberal media pundits, our president, most of congress, and even many citizens define compassion as remedying a perceived wrong by taking one person’s assets and distributing them to another via legislation, judicial fiat, or somebody’s whim. This is not compassion. This is progressive social engineering. We need to understand this before it totally shifts public sentiment away from successful capitalism and towards the unsuccessful utopia known as socialism.

Socialistic thought sounds “fair and balanced” but our Founding Fathers never intended for every citizen to expect the exact same outcome. The Founders knew what many today don’t grasp and that is, the relationship between risks and rewards. We should all be allowed to determine how much risk we take on in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Those successful entrepreneurs choosing to take on more risk aren’t better people than folks who don’t. One person is not “better” than another (they may think they are but God tells us clearly they are not), but it does mean that when risk-takers are exponentially successful they should not be unduly punished for their success because the rest of us didn’t take the same risks they did.

Progressives want to box us in. If we take risks and fail they say nothing, but if we take risks and succeed, they want to tax us into oblivion. There is no downside for a progressive thinker. You’ve either gained at the expense of others unfairly or you are in need of a handout. Therein lays the trouble. A society that does not actively and handsomely reward risk taking will never produce a thriving economy. We know this instinctively in our personal lives, but we fail to translate it to the larger picture.

We know if we hand the bank money for a CD, our return is minimal, our investment is safe, and we will never get rich. We also know if we take that same money and buy Microsoft stock that our potential return will be much greater, but so will our potential loss be. Progressives want to tax your successful investment in Microsoft and tell you they are doing it to even out the playing field for the person investing in CD’s.

This is not compassionate. This is a mirage. When government picks sides, one person is shown compassion at another person’s expense. By very definition this cannot be called compassion.

Compassion in society must be practiced at the individual level and it must be accompanied by choice. I choose to donate my time, money, talent, and energy to help those in need. I chose, not you choosing for me. I take care of my neighbors and those I rub shoulders with everyday. Many will shout, “what if nobody chooses to help?” My answer to that is, we are the most generous nation on earth, many people will step up at the individual level and help when government stops trying to help by taxing all of us to death.

A person looking out for other people is true compassion and it advances society infinitely farther than Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi deciding who should sacrifice and who should receive. When you hear too many people parroting the phrase, “to each according to his need and from each according to his ability”, watch out…the decline in your standard of living is not far behind. Know the difference between artificial compassion and true compassion, be able to articulate it, and let’s go get our country back.