Dr. Paton is Professor Emeritus of Accounting and of Economics, University of Michigan, and is known throughout the world for his outstanding work in these fields. His current comments on American attitudes and behavior are worthy of everyone’s attention.
A story that was one of my grandfather’s favorites, and which he enjoyed embellishing with local color and varying details, needs retelling. The yarn, in a nutshell, was as follows:
Little Tommy was out on the street, very dirty and with both the knees and seat of his pants in tatters. A passing neighbor, noting that the youngster’s condition was somewhat more disreputable than usual, complained: “For heaven’s sake, Tommy, why doesn’t your mother mend your trousers?” To which query Tommy replied cheerfully: “Oh, my mother is too busy to do that. She’s over at the parsonage sewing for the heathen.”
The lesson to be learned from this miniature tale is quite obvious, but nevertheless seems to have been widely forgotten—along with many other pearls in our accumulated stock of common sense—at this juncture. The point to be made, of course, is the desirability of putting one’s own house in order before tackling the chore of redding up either the place next door or a more distant establishment, at home or abroad. This bit of homely wisdom is age-old and is reflected in many familiar adages and admonitions that have come down through the centuries. “Let every man mind his own business” is the blunt and restrictive way that Cervantes (and doubtless others before him) put it.¹ Biblical injunctions in this area range from the pithy “physician, heal thyself” to the striking and unforgettable “cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”²
A Man’s First Duty
The view that self-improvement comes before trying to remake the other fellow certainly has substantial merit, and straightening out one’s own thinking and developing one’s own character are such difficult and lengthy undertakings as normally to require many years of effort and growth—a lifetime for a lot of us, with the task still unfinished at the end. In other words, only a few ever reach the stage where they are fully justified in “telling off” the folks whose ideas and actions they regard as objectionable. Not many are truly “called” to this task.
This is not saying that all teaching and preaching activities should be condemned. Family conduct is closely related to individual behavior, and parents have and should accept the major responsibility for guiding the actions and molding the attitudes of their children, as well as taking on the humdrum job of providing food and the other physical essentials. Many persons are reasonably competent to give instruction to young or old in specific subjects such as algebra or piano playing.
But when we turn to the broad fields of economics, politics, and morals (to say nothing of sociology, and the burgeoning array of satellite pseudo sciences dealing with human behavior), the number adequately qualified to teach—or preach—is painfully small. Anyone has a right to offer his services in these difficult and controversial areas, in a free market, but it is unfortunate when an educational structure develops which in effect compels high school and college students to suffer under continuous dosing by instructors who have little more by way of strings to their bows than zeal for “social reform.”
Group Reformation
The lesson may also be readily applied to group policies and actions aimed at inducing other groups, by persuasion or compulsion, to change their ways. The outstanding current example, of course, is the massive “foreign aid” program of the
And look at the daily reports of increasing crime, including many grisly and terrifying cases (fostered in part by the prevailing policy of coddling lawbreakers, by social workers and the courts); the senseless slaughter on the highways (more than a third of all Americans who die between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five are killed in automobile accidents); the widespread outbreaks of rioting and looting, uncontrolled for days at a stretch; the growing swarm of rude, disheveled, and otherwise obnoxious young people, to be found everywhere, and now conspicuously in evidence on college campuses; the contemptuous brushing away of moral standards, in all levels and sections of American life, including top governmental officialdom.
Strength Through Struggle
It’s not a pretty picture, and as one contemplates the scene, he gets to wondering if affluence is superior to austerity as a condition for mankind, for the long pull. There is considerable evidence that the pinch of poverty has merit as a character builder. In climbing the slope and overcoming obstacles the human being often exhibits amazing courage, persistence, and resourcefulness. But when he gets to the top, has it made, he doesn’t seem to know how to maintain either his energy or his integrity. At this stage he’s inclined to forget the factors required for material progress, and look to government, “Big Brother,” as a means of securing him in the enjoyment of his gains to date and at the same time providing more and more for less and less effort. Can the race stand prosperity? is a truly basic question.
In any event, it is quite apparent that the astronomical handouts of more than one hundred billions abroad during the past twenty years have not won us either the friendship or respect of the handoutees. They take our money, and want more; but they don’t like us and they don’t change their political and social views and practices to conform to those we are supposedly trying to export. And possibly one reason Uncle Sam’s give-away program is a flop is that he doesn’t have his own house in order, doesn’t set a good example.
The foreign aid program is political, widely publicized, even somewhat patronizing. There is much accompanying talk of “underdeveloped,” “backward” nations. If the folks abroad, in Latin America, in Africa, and elsewhere, find this annoying and become nastily resentful (to the point, at times, of offering violence to the giver), it should not be surprising. Perhaps there is something to be said for the ideas and ways of life of these “backward” peoples, including the remaining primitive tribes of the deserts, jungles, and forests, even if they lack automobiles, television sets, and central heating. Who are we to criticize and give way to the uplifting urge on the grand scale? Even if we assume that we are smart enough to run the other fellow’s life as well as our own, isn’t it a bit presumptuous to attempt this, particularly if the other fellow prefers to take care of his own affairs? Are we justified in interfering with the opportunity of others to realize the satisfaction that comes from accepting responsibility and climbing the slope in their own way?
The Helping Hand
Do these unfavorable comments on massive aid for the “heathen” abroad (and which are scarcely less applicable to governmental welfare programs and antipoverty drives on the domestic front) aim in the direction of condemnation rather than praise for the somewhat instinctive urge to lend a helping hand to a fellow man in distress? Was the Samaritan of the famous parable on the wrong track? Having spent a substantial number of years of my life in a primitive farm community, where the helping hand was much in evidence, in the form of participation in barn raisings, husking bees, threshings, and so on, as well as in connection with specific accidents, fires, and other misfortunes, I can’t escape the conclusion that there are circumstances under which the individual may properly render assistance to neighbors—and strangers, too—and to that extent interfere in their affairs.
I recall the time that I was driving the nine-mile trip to town with a team and bobsled, hauling a 5,000-pound load of baled hay. Snow was deep on the road, and there had not been much traffic since the last fall. As a result, probably, of a mite of careless driving, a runner went down in a soft spot and all the bales of hay, and myself, left the rack and were piled up every which way in the deep drifts along the road. Reloading 200-pound bales under these conditions is difficult, and I was much pleased when Irving Abbott drove up behind me and helped mightily with advice and muscle. (In this case,
Six Suggested Requirements or Limitations on Aid
Giving counsel or other assistance is ticklish business, and if aid is to be constructively helpful, without bad side effects, there are severely limiting factors to be observed. First, aid should generally be on an individual rather than a group basis (although private association activity need not be ruled out); second, it should be strictly voluntary, not given at the point of a gun or under compulsion by government; third, it should be welcomed, if not actually invited, by the recipient; fourth, it should be related to specific difficulties and distresses (such as the personal example just recounted ) and should not become continuing, habitual; fifth, wherever practicable the kind deed should be in the form of the needed service or goods (for example, helping a neighbor to repair tornado damage to his home, or providing emergency shelter); sixth, in general the giver of aid should be in close contact with the distress he is trying to relieve, or at least be familiar with the facts. Under these specifications the helping hand can be defended. But aid so restricted is a far cry from contributions to all sorts of domestic or distant “reform” and “welfare” programs and causes, about which the giver has no firsthand or dependable information as to nature or accomplishments. Aid to others in this framework, moreover, is completely at odds with massive and continuing programs of grants at the political level, for which we are compelled to dig down in our pockets to provide the funds.
The inherent obligation of each individual, to sum it up, is to improve himself intellectually, technically, morally, to the utmost of his ability, and provide service to his fellow men primarily through the process of voluntary exchange, on the free market if such an institution is available. He should not become so preoccupied with the faults or the wants of others, real or fancied, as to forget his own limitations, and that charity begins at home. At the same time he should be glad to lend a helping hand on occasions where temporary assistance is clearly needed and will be welcomed. But he should always remember that every man deserves the precious opportunity to assume responsibility for his own course, whether he is swimming courageously upstream or paddling lazily, with plenty of company, in the other direction.
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Foot Notes
1 According to
2See Luke 6:41-42, for the complete parable.
3 Almost everybody, including most politicians, still give lip service to “free enterprise,” but the plain fact is that American business is seriously hobbled by an ever-expanding network of restrictions, regulations, and interferences, especially at the Federal level, and the mechanism of the market, indispensable to a free economy, is limping badly and no longer giving effective guidance in the utilization of resources.