Local people would help the infirm spontaneously

Are we really bad people?

The State often seeks to justify itself by talking about the kind deeds that it performs on our behalf. Without them, they claim, the poor would go unfed, the weak would be destitute. The State, by passing laws, creates the poverty which they then seek to alleviate, without the State there would be only prosperity...

They claim that without being forced to do so, people would not be willing to help their neighbours and people in need. The significant Charity sector immediately refutes their claim in spite of people already being penalised by the State, people still give to charity even after taxes.

The mind-set of the State is that we do nothing for others without personal reward or the threat of punishment... This presents the inconsistency in their thinking that contradicts itself: Why then do the State do what they do if not to help others? If we don't want to help others why would we choose to punish ourselves in order to make other people more selfless?

Are those who endorse the State benevolent when they advocate punishment for non-payment of taxes?

Is it true that we must collectively force one-another to do that which we would not do alone? Of course, no this is not the answer...

To a certain extent, people are generous by nature: If they have the ability to easily help other people they will, particularly if those in need are local to them because it will be in their interests and because they will have an instinctive attachment to their neighbours. It is not the case that we seek to do one-another harm in the absence of fear of retribution, most people will do "good" if only for reasons of biological instinct.

So, if we are naturally inclined to do good, why doesn't that impulse obviate the need for the State by replacing it? The State can never (in their eyes) be replaced because their presumption is always that we must be protected from ourselves. Hopefully, over time people will see the benefit of helping others even beyond what the State has provided and make it impossible for the State to justify itself. This would be a true "gift" economy.

24th Jan'09


See also: But what obligation do we have to each other?

Why is it my fault that people get old and if it isn't shouldn't helping them be a choice for me to make, not you? (25th Jan'09)


If people want to look after old people they will... If old people want to be looked after they will find someone who wants to do it. If you require assistance to stay alive and no one wants to do it, the consequences (implications) are obvious... Luckily it is likely that someone will be willing to help you out. (7th Feb'09)

Update: We want to help other people

We do not deny that, as a general rule, the parents of a child want, or feel compelled to help their child. But does this extend to other people? Clearly some people have their differences (of opinion) in what they want to achieve and make happen. The existence of crimes tells us that some people do not want the same thing to happen as other people might want... But as an overall rule, we want what other people want.

In a tribal setting, with all else being equal, we want what is best for the tribe. So if it would otherwise not matter to us one way or another, and it is to the advantage (or at least not disadvantage) of the tribe for the infirm to prosper, then there is no reason that they should not do so.

It is natural for a person to instinctively want to help other people, in the abstract... We might not want to help people in a particular situation but overall we want to help other people. This is a genetically favourable behaviour since for any species to survive requires a number of individuals of the same species to exist. If too few of the same species exist we arrive at problems to do with the genetic pool of variation becoming too small and problems of in-breeding arise...

So people when freely acting, will tend to help one-another, providing their environment (as they interpret it) does not change too much from the circumstances of their primordial existence. A person will not seek to (instinctively) help other people if their environment has become destructive, which might be interpreted (or rather, recognised) as the situation arising when there is an insufficiency of resources.

Wednesday 29 April 2009