Luda got something to say!
Weird dream last night. In the dream, I was working at a liberal (progressive? Lefty? What are we calling it these days?) think tank. I decided to get a big group of all kinds of people in a room for a public policy brainstorm, and invited homeless people, children, teenagers, mothers, transmen, etc. etc. And Ludacris. I prepared a list of discussion questions, such as, "What obligation, if any, do the rich have to the poor?" But some internet-meme type questions crept in there somewhere, including "If you were a crayon, what color would you be?" and "What kind of kite do you prefer: box or diamond?" Well, the discussion group was ultimately unproductive, with angry debates over the difference between burnt umber and burnt sienna. My alarm went off in the middle of an impassioned impromptu address to the group by Ludacris, who insisted that sure, people can give their money away if they want, but the rich don't owe the poor ANYTHING.
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Rich Owe Nothing
Wealth Bondage
Interesting how easy it is to find both classical and Judeo-Christian sources on "the uses of wealth," or the duty of tithing, or caritas. "Faith, hope, and charity and the greatest of these is charity." Yet the rich owe nothing. The poor must learn virtue from the rich, who in turn owe nothing. This view was once considered unconscionable. The wealthy were raised on The Parable of the Talents and Milton's On His Blindness, to the effect that to whom much is given much is expected. Today it is all cash and carry. The net is that wealth has forfeited its moral claim to legitimacy and must rely on the market myth for it, or Darwinism.