The more things change ...

Recently I have been reading some of the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the nineteenth century philosopher and writer. In his essay titled Self-Reliance, I came across the following passage:

“…do not tell me, as a good man did today, of my obligation to put all poor men
in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee thou foolish philanthropist that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold: for them I will go to prison if need be; but your miscellaneouspopular charities; the education at college of fools; the building of meeting-houses to the vain end to which many now stand; alms to sots, and the thousand-fold Relief Societies; -- though I confess with shame I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, it is a wicked dollar which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold.”

Written in the 1840’s, this hit me like a thunderbolt. There really is nothing new under the sun. The only change to the terms of the debate in the last 160 years has been that now Emerson’s philanthropist would argue that it is the government’s job to “put all poor men in good situations,” and Emerson must give his money in taxes to support this worthy goal.