Subnostr

Poor also get poor due to things like being robbed or falling ill.

This is true, but it is the minority of the poor. If all were wealthy, their generosity would cover the poverty of the ill and weak out of charity.

The truly poor can hardly care for themselves, let alone their neighbors, and the wicked will not if they have the means, but the righteous wealthy man will care for many unfortunate neighbors.

We must also take into account that the tyrant creates poverty by stifling those who would create wealth and keeping those who don't from improving themselves. (I mean the welfare state ironically creates poverty by robbing the productive and disincentivizing the unproductive.)

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Discussion

Laeserin 2y ago

I think charity is vital to ensuring that everyone can live a life befitting the dignity we all would expect, in accordance with our regional living standards, but I am wary of the idea of human sameness.

Jesus told us that the poor would always be among us, so we shouldn't have the expectation that we can cure relative poverty.

James A Lewis 2y ago

Actually, this view of trade necessitates that individuals are different. We all come to the table with varying gifts to trade, be that skills, property, connections, or information. The fact that the potatoe farmer hasn't apples and the orchard keep hasn't potatoes makes the two able to trade, and likewise for the lawyer, the blacksmith, the software engineer, the tailor, the plumber, etc. Human variance makes possible trade and charity.

James A Lewis 2y ago

To make a physics analogy, work (analogous to positive trade) occurs when energy is transfered in an ordered fashion, and entropy is the waste of the energy without doing work. For work to be possible, an energy differential is necessary. For the physical world, there is a source and sink called our sun and empty space, and as rational souls we are able to tap into that energy differential to do work for ourselves and others. The farmer received the energy of the sun to produce edible energy for our bodies. The Christian receives the spiritual food of the Son to power his (and His) charity in the world.