this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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I am not even remotely Christian or any other religion, so the following is meant to be nothing more than a thought exercise.
Suppose somebody in the United States took Jesus up on his word and sold all their possessions, gave it all away to the poor, and spent their remaining days helping others.
In the US economic and social environment, how would they even survive?
Reiterate: I am not Christian and I do not support religion of any kind. I'll add that the foundation of this thought is my general disdain for this late stage capitalism in which we exist.
They'd go to the food bank, soup kitchen, sleep on a tent in the street or a homeless shelter, start a ministry and receive donations. The question though is what if every christian did that, and that's a very complex economic question.
I've thought of that in philosophy as well. I once pointed out to a professor that it was a mathematical impossibility for every person to be completely altruistic. He mostly stopped speaking to me for the remainder of the semester.
I’m not well-versed in philosophy, so I don’t know what’s commonly defined as ‘altruism.’ If you define it as ‘exclusively working for or giving to another person’, then you’re right. But what if we defined it as ‘exclusively working for or giving to the commonwealth’?
I think the plan is to not just distribute your wealth to specific individuals, but to a broad spectrum of soci- oh, wait, that's socialism, which is fine.