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Nobody should feel responsible for helping those less fortunate than them.
I disagree in that I think people should feel responsible to help others, I just don't think their money should be forcibly removed from them in order to help the less fortunate, or that others should stand around judging how they supposedly do or do not use their money.
If someone (whatever their income level) tells me straight out, "I care nothing about others in society; I refuse to help anyone no matter how much money I have," then I reserve the right to judge that person accordingly. But I do not have the right to observe someone driving a Lamborghini and conclude that they are greedy and selfish because they are wealthy.
Is being very wealthy, i'm talking about making over a million dollars a year, without giving a substantial portion of your income to charitable causes immoral. Is it immoral for people to have things like private jets, yachts, and other ostentatious toys while not giving much of their wealth back to society.
Discuss...
I don't think being wealthy is any more immoral than being poor is virtuous. It's what you do to become wealthy and/or what you do with your wealth that determines weather what kind of person you are.
If you have earned your wealth honestly, or inherited it, doesn't really matter from a moral or ethical point of view. How you act towards others, or how you serve others is what matters. If you're greedy and selfish, that's immoral.
Same thing applies if you're poor. If you're poor due to just plain ol' bad luck, or through issued beyond your control, that's one thing. If you're poor, and not taking care of your family properly due to just being flat out lazy, that's immoral too! Expecting others to carry the load for you isn't right.
Being wealthy in itself is not immoral. The means of becoming wealthy can be either moral or immoral.
However, I believe systemic poverty (unemployment) in a very wealthy country fully capable of taking care of its people is immoral in the BIG PICTURE. Doesn't have to be attributed to the will of the wealthy. Rather, it's systemic. Only so much pie, and some people have the vast majority.
Morality is determined by how one acquired wealth - by preying on others, or by being harmless and productive.
Sharing wealth is not the remedy for poverty and should not be considered.
If money cured poverty, make everyone equally rich, so no one "needs" money. But if no one needs money, who will do the work, sweat, and produce the goods and services ?
Obviously, money is useless if no one will fill the marketplace.
We could argue though that having much more than you need IS being greedy. In fact I think that is the very definition of greedy. We don't want to see people who have a lot more than they need as greedy, but well, that's what they are regardless of how they got wealthy or how nice they are, etc.
Were you really honest in all of your business dealings and got rich? I would be hard pressed to believe you were because honesty and being rich are not two things that go together naturally. (Are you SURE you never lied to anyone or over-represented yourself or your product or service? Hmm?)
If you are Christian, you have already been told to give up everything you have and follow Christ. You have been told point blank that it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for you to enter Heaven, and you have been told that you have already had your reward and have nothing to look forward to (hint hint). You have been told that if you have material possessions, see a person in need and do not pity them, the love of God is not in you. Now whether you actually CARE what God says is another story. money might make you feel so powerful that you think you can pay off God so he will turn the other way and let you into heaven, anyway. Or you may think you can do whatever because you're "saved" and God is a sucker who will always forgive you whether you are actually sorry or repent at all. (Yeah, that's unlikely to happen.)
You may not want to be "forced" to give away anything, but if you're Christian then the creator of all things, the omnipotent and all powerful force that gave you everything you have has already told you to give stuff away and not be greedy, haughty or cheaty. I am guessing you're not very concerned with his thoughts on the matter, though. So when you die you can go, "But I didn't HAVE TO!" Good luck with that, hope that works out for you. (Actually no I don't.)
If you're rich, it doesn't matter if you're moral or not. You have power, and that's all that really matters. And every time you spend a dime, you lose some power.
There are 2 ways to judge:
1. how money came to possession
2. how money is spent.
That's it.
Remember - forgot her name - the American lady married to a wealthy fabricant? End of 19th century I believe. After his death she inherited $25 000 000 - and gave it all to charity and became a nun. She passed both tests.
How does becoming a nun help people?
And, while giving all of one's money to charity is commendable, it is possible she could have done more good by investing in businesses that would have eventually employed hundreds of thousands.
god wanted his people to "be fruitful and multiply." Genesis 1:28
how one achieves fruit is a different question.
"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit." Luke 6:43
But all fruit belongs to GOD, not you. You are a STEWARD, not an owner. You do with it what HE commands. And there's enough in the Bible that tells Christians to give away everything they have. If you have two coats and your neighbor needs one, you give it. Give of your substance, not your abundance. Take care of widows and orphans. Don't lie (God hates liars), cheat, commit usury (interest on loans) or be greedy and haughty and arrogant. Have pity on others. Love others as yourself. Put others ahead of yourself. Woe to you who are rich for you have already received your reward.
None of that actually means anything to Christians, though. They think they "earned" stuff and "deserve" stuff while others don't. Well, Jesus came to save all those who didn't deserve it. According to the Bible, no one deserved it but he did it anyway. And i hear Christians whining endlessly about how they deserve stuff and they earned it. not one acknowledges that God gave them the health and ability to do everything they have done. Not one credits God at all. They did it all apart from him, they didn't need God, it was ALL THEM. They're the only ones who deserve. They EARNED IT.
Stewards do as they're told. Christians suck as stewards. They think they own everything. Some of the greediest people I've ever seen, and some of the nastiest, most hateful people.
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