Over 75% of the globe’s population do not have any form of health insurance. No social platforms to rely upon if there is a financial/health/social crisis within the family.
What if your daughter or wife has a disease that is sucking up all your finances, savings and credit? What do you do? Your business is about to go belly up into bankruptcy taking your family savings with it. Your child had a car accident and is sued for more than your insurance covers. You have health insurance but the firm who once called you a partner and friend refuses to cover your family members’ health costs.
This happens daily to many thousands in North America and the World.
What do you do? Assuredly you are a moral person, possibly a church goer, a faith-filled citizen who has always been a pillar of the community and adheres to the Laws and Commands.
What do you do to save your loved one, your business, someone dear to you? You already have 2-3 jobs, and are working non-stopped to a point where your health is in question. You have done all that you can, asked for loans from institutions and friends alike, begged for assistance from a government who you have supported with your tax dollars.
No one is there for you to assist you except those with little to give. All of this can happen to anyone anywhere. Bad luck, uncontrollable circumstances that threaten and oppress you.
Philosophers and Social Thinkers alike have pondered this question. What to do when you are morally pondering the choices before you … to humble yourself before God and Mammon or become something you abhor, namely turning to criminality.
A philosopher named Anatole France once said “if given the choice to beg or take what you need, he would always become the predator”.
The Law is supposed to view both rich and poor equally, yet the law is manipulated by the wealthy to favour their lot. Whether you view the opinions of Peter Singer or Karl Marx, Socrates or Christopher Barzak the question of morality and immorality applied to the survival of someone is usually one sided, in the favour of the person trying to survive.
In today’s cultural mosaic, a person can take example from a multitude of celebrities and politicians who have done wrong and simply apologise. God forgive me, oh Society please forgive me.
I am a person of high morality at this moment in time. Once long ago I was the direct opposite of what I presently am. People change, as too their attitudes, morality and worldview. Religion found me, shaped and molded me as I maintained a free and open mind.
How would I answer the question? God forgive me, but as a responsible person, holding the lives of my family within my hands, I would possibly succumb to the lesser morality. Can someone be a morally sound criminal, a gentleman robber?
I truly believe that poverty is a moral and social crime/sin, and the wealthy and rich must respond to this criminality in a moral, just fashion for their own survival is at stake. Someday, the poor will inherit the earth, but blood will certainly flow before that eventuality.
Equality – Social Justice – True Democracy – a World Based upon Morality will become a future for us all one day. Historic Evolution will unfortunately need to proceed before that can become a reality.
Steven Kaszab
Bradford, Ontario