Social Good
Categories: Ethics/Morals
What is a social good? Well, curing cancer ain't political. It'd be a social good, and likely a financial one to do so.
Both Republicans and Democrats (and Socialists and Libertarians and Klansmen and Anarchists) get it. The rest of defining what is "good" for society is oh so much harder.
The old adage goes that, if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day (or, like, one meal), but teach a man to fish and he'll be able to eat forever. This plays into that notion a bit. If we dole out government handouts to the poor, then we teach them to rely on handouts. On the other hand, they need the money today or they die. So...yes, that's a social good. But should it come with no strings attached? How much should be taken from the haves and given to the have-nots? How do we allocate the views of some 325 million Americans in doing all of this? Are our obligations only to Americans? What about Mexicans swimming across the border with their families? What about...
So yeah, you can see we could ask a thousand "what abouts" and never arrive at a good answer. It's just good that you're asking the question.
