Helping the Hungry Man

Assume you are a fisherman. A hungry man (H) approaches your way and you decide to help him.

You have several ways...

Giving him a fish obviously appears to be the best philanthropic option at first thought, but is it so obvious?

CASE (1)

Assume you satisfy his hunger today by giving him a fish. What about tomorrow?

- He might die of hunger and you can be satisfied that you extended his life by one day.

(or)

- He might comeback again the next day for a fish. Assume you can afford to give him a fish again.

But what if he comes back the next day, the next day, and so on..?

To be blatantly honest, you would have ended up making H a parasite, who lives on somebody else's work (in this case yours). H may not even realize he has become a parasite, but that does not change anything. Not only your food supply is now shared, but the day you can't fish, H will die and you might also die without your reserves. In other words, you would have created an unsustainable system which is bound to fail.

NOTE that, without question, your intentions were good to begin with, but that does not necessarily guarantee sustainability.

CASE (2)

On the other hand, suppose you teach him fishing, it is easy to see you have created a sustainable system ( as long as there is fish in the sea!).

CASE (0) ?

I did not want to discuss this case earlier, where you give H, not just fish, but cooked tasty fish curry!.

Not only H will become parasitic and lazy, but also addicted to taste...

Well you can argue that this is better than killing him, but only slightly.

Moreover when you have a much better sustainable option (CASE (2)), why would you think further???

In analogy, the US government today had created a similar unsustainable system to provide entitlement benefits to everyone.

The worst part is that US government cannot fish. It can only (forcefully) collect fish from fishermen and distribute it to others with the hope that the people who borrowed will also contribute a share of their catch in the future. And of course, as middle men, the US government officials take a share of fish for themselves.

At first glance you might say Wow! Fantastic system!...Remember CASE (1)??...Wait a minute and take a hard look at reality.

The US system today is bad beyond belief. The borrowers have become parasites (this of course includes the middle men who do no productive work). As a result the US government borrows fish from China by promising to give it back in future.

This system is not only unsustainable, but when the system fails China will also get nothing in return for giving its reserve fish.

Think of the honest people who worked hard to give their share of excess fish to the government. They will probably never ever get anything in return...not even a stable system where they can survive!

At the current rate it is not hard to see that one day China will realize that US's system is unsustainable and will stop lending. The day that happens US and its citizens will suffer prolonged hunger for decades!

People, specially the parasites, are so addicted to tasty Chinese fish that they have postponed the thought of sustainability. In fact they have more demands from the government today.

The government officials will never care about sustainability as long as they get their share of fish.

The honest hard working fishermen will probably leave the country and might end up in well run government like, for example, China. This will only accelerate the inevitable US crash.

Whom to blame for the crash ? - the people who, by the way, also elect the government.

It is time people take a brutally honest look at themselves to make sure they are not parasites and they do not support parasitic behavior. Taking it easy now and hoping for China to provide forever is crazy!

Sustainability is as important as philanthropy and better know what to expect from the government - A SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM WITH PROTECTION FOR HARD WORK AND EARNED ASSETS...... DO NOT EXPECT COOKED HOT SPICY FISH CURRY!!.....to be more precise you should not even expect free fishing rods or fishing lessons.

Great societies are built when people understand the importance of fishing and not just the taste of fish.

The explanation is surely an over simplification, but you get the idea....

Inspired by an old adage -

"Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime"