I’ve been containing my anger for another reason today. It all started at the Downtown Master Planning meeting when people were clamoring for a steady stream of support for the arts. One guy in our breakout group told the artists that normal people, when they find they can’t make ends meet, go out and get a second job.
It is assumed that manufacturing is bad, chain stores are bad, tourism is bad. All these industries need to be outlawed. Development needs to be small so it can’t turn a profit. Arts are good and government is good, so these will be our only economic sectors. What is missing? Maybe Greenville taxpayers can send us something.
This caused me to think about the French Revolution and how some say liberty and equality could never co-exist. I’m sure the French freedom-lovers were talking about the elimination of privileged classes, unlike American communists who clamor for equality not of opportunity but of results. If one person breaks his back carrying bags of heavy stones all day and earns enough to make mortgage payments, then, they argue, somebody who wants to juggle all day in the sunlight also should have enough to make a mortgage payment. This means our poor stone-hauler is going to have to work a second job to pay enough in taxes to subsidize our juggler.
Look at the picture here. The poor peasant is ready to collapse. What are we going to do???
Well, I was rather busy today, but I got hit up by a person who wanted to give me an extremely long story about how he isn’t homeless. In the end, he wanted $5 for groceries. Now, I broke the law to give him money, and I sinned because I did it grudgingly. The missions in Asheville give people three square meals a day. Is it judgmental to assume somebody who is too proud to eat at the missions but not too proud to stand outside gas stations and panhandle, really doesn’t want groceries? Most people I know pay taxes, tithe, make other charitable contributions, and that still is not enough to go around.
