Summary

Aesop tells us of a farmer who had a magical goose; one that would lay golden eggs. The farmer lived well enough selling the eggs, but he got impatient; in his ignorance of how things worked, he cut the goose open to get all the eggs at once. Is our society doing the same thing; killing the goose that lays the golden eggs?

Links and References

Moral Compass

Responsibility Flow (chart)

Ratchet Effect

Contact

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Transcript

My first guess is that we are all familiar with Aesop’s fable--a fictional story with a moral--about the farmer who had a goose that laid golden eggs. He and his family were living well by selling the eggs, but he lost patience with having to wait for the cash from the next egg, and in his ignorance of how things in the world work, cut the goose open to get at the stash.

My second guess is that most of us laugh at the farmer’s ignorance, and say to ourselves if he was that ignorant and greedy, well, he got what he deserved. Maybe. But what about his family; they suffered along with him when the goose died. And it wasn’t their fault. And is our society, in it’s ignorance, doing essentially the same thing?

In the fable the golden goose was the farmer’s dependable source of wealth. Not understanding--or caring to understand--how this wealth was produced, the farmer allowed his greed to destroy the goose, and the source of wealth for himself and his family. In our country, capitalism is the dependable source of wealth. In fact, entrepreneurial capitalism is the greatest wealth-producing engine the world has ever seen. Or ever will see.

This greatest wealth-producing engine needs two things to be complete:

Controls, guide rails, if you will and

A mechanism for distributing some of that wealth.

The guide rails start with the moral compasses of the people who participate in a capitalist economy; the people who are driving that engine, working in it and those benefiting from it. Along with those moral compasses, we need government regulation. Even if we were all perfect and never took advantage of each other, and that is far from the truth, some regulations would still be needed. The conversation about regulation starts with how many regulations are needed and in what sectors, not whether we need any at all.

The distribution conversation starts with who gets the money that someone else made, and how much of it do they get? It  does not start with do we distribute wealth at all in our society. Here are some clear examples, and some questions:

Take roads, bridges, military, fire protection and law enforcement. Governments must tax to pay for these needed services. Some people pay dramatically more in taxes than others, with their tax money distributed to those others by paying for these government services that everyone uses.

Some people are utterly incapable of providing for themselves, no matter how hard they try and no matter how long they try. There is no question that money from taxpayers should be distributed to these people. The question is what kind of lifestyle should this redistributed wealth provide? Healthcare, food, shelter and clothing are necessary and should be provided, but at what level? And are other things, entertainment for example, also necessary, and should they be paid for as well? Ah, and what is the role of family and friends, and community and charity with individuals who cannot do for themselves?

Then there is everyone and everything else.