The Lesson of Ebenezer Scrooge

There is a book about that is written by a minister who spends an entire year living like Jesus (or how he thinks Jesus would have lived). In the end he is inspired to vote for Barack Obama. Shouldn't the teachings of Jesus inspire him to vote libertarian and then allow people to make up their own minds about how to care for the poor?

No reason why you can't have food stamps to provide certainty while charity provides, well, charity. The provision of charity is hardly stable otherwise, and falls through the floor during recessions when it is most needed.

[D]avid (not me) writes:
The provision of charity is hardly stable otherwise, and falls through the floor during recessions when it is most needed.

Actually, david, that's not true, at least during the worst recession we had, the Great Depression. Check the data in Russell Roberts's article in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics:

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Charity.html

Check Table 1, which shows charity growing from 1929 to 1933, as the Depression worsens. Then, when government comes in massively from about 1933 or so on, it crowds out charity.

Billy,
I forgot to comment. Is it something in our DNA that causes us to comment with much higher probability when we disagree? But I do agree with your bottom line. Thanks.
Do you remember the name of the book? Sounds interesting.

capital-D David,

The book Billy refers to is "The Year of Living like Jesus", by Edward G. Dobson.

I was under the impression that the charity crowding-out hypothesis had been discredited in the 70s but apparently it has still proponents! Time to do some reading.

Sign me up! I'd like not being REQUIRED to do the right thing! Next time, if I'm late for a meeting, I might not stop at the scene of an accident. To paraphrase Mr. Henderson, "Making people stop at the scene of an accident is not compassion; it’s coercion."

"WWDHD - What would David Henderson Do" is my new motto. Sorry, Jesus, but doing the right thing because you're required to is for chumps!

Dan,
Are you saying that the only reason you would stop at the scene of an accident is that you're legally compelled to? In other words, if there were no compulsion (which, by the way, there typically isn't) you would not stop at the scene of an accident?
Best,
David

Dan,

There's hardly ever a "right thing to do" that can be determined by some universal arbitrator. That's one of the reasons it works the best when everyone decides on their own which causes to donate their time or money to.

- Josh

Dickens actually makes this point himself. One of Scrooge's early justifications for his lack of voluntary generosity is that he pays his taxes.

Of course, there's another line that may have even more resonance in the age of health care reform...

-"If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

Actually I believe Scrooge says "are there no workhouses" which were the primitive social safety net of the time.

I'm pretty sure he speaks of his existing "support" of the Poor Law, which was funded through involuntary taxation.

Call me simple-minded if you wish. But to me, it is simple. The more economic freedom, the less absolute poverty.

I don't really care about relative poverty.

I want more economic freedom for everyone.

David -- you are so right celebrate Mammon -- while conveniently ignoring Matthew 19:23-30 and the Golden Rule -- remember many are called but few chose.