Compassion

It’s not unusual for people to become more conservative as they age. It is said that if you are not liberal when you are young, then you don’t have a heart and if you are not conservative when you are old, you don’t have a brain. Any honest liberal is motivated by good intentions which is directed by empathy and compassion. Sometimes they are pejoratively referred to as do gooders or bleeding hearts. The down side is that all too often the law of unintended consequence creeps in and what was a good idea turns into a problem. In politics this kind of attitude is depicted in the phrase tax and spend liberal. The goal is to develop a meaningful safety net to help those truly in need. When this is put into practice another side of the equation appears. It seems if government largess is used to help someone it can lead to dependency on public assistance. This is where the plot thickens. All to quickly, those in charge of tax and spend, discover that they have the power to decide who gets what and when and people with power want to keep it. Elected officials want more than anything to get reelected. Thus, a circle is completed when those who receive the benefits ensure the continuation by voting for those who provide the benefits. Instead of concentrated on handing out benefits their time could be more productively spent by finding good paying jobs where people would no longer need the benefits. However, if the people no longer need the benefits, they may no longer be dependent on those who distribute the goodies. Many times compassion is used to cover up an agenda that has little to do with helping others and a lot to do with helping one self.