I would have to agree with Bellah and his co-authors on the idea that how a society "deals with the problem of wealth and poverty" should act as "litmus test . . . for assessing the health of a society." I'm not sure if it is the most important measure of how a society, but it definitely should be combined with other "litmus tests" when we look at the health of a society.
The way a society deals with poverty says a lot about any society. Poverty is one of the 'plagues' of society and an issue that every society has to deal with. The way a society deals with and handles poverty is a very strong indicator of a society's values. If a society as a whole was to ignore poverty and say that those who are poor are responsible for their own poverty would obviously not value compassion and selflessness. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a society that only concentrates on alleviating poverty would value the greater good of the group (not in utilitarian terms, but as a community that could possibly be oppressive) and not value the individual. In the somewhere middle is American society. American society does try to alleviate poverty , but at the same time there is more concern for the individual and individual preference. Right now in American society, there is a culture of individualism (expressive individualism and utilitarian individualism according to Bellah et all). This culture of individualism has led to many of the community aspects of American society to collapse. Americans do not treat their poor well and the rest of the world has noticed, although many Americans have not. If we were to measure American society based on how we treat our poor, we would be a very sad society.
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Do you think it'd be possible to say that maybe Americans don't feel much pity for their poor due to cultural, racial, and ethnic differences that are ever-present in American society?
ReplyDeleteTo provide an outside example, Germany, as a past homogenous nation, maintained socialist policies -- and the German public willingly contributed their tax money to go to welfare of the poor, who were of the same background/ethnicity/citizenship/color.
Upon the immigration of Turks into Germany, many Turkish immigrants benefited from the German welfare system. The native Germans were vexed at this occurrence and many objected the support of these immigrants -- perhaps of lack of cultural/ethnic/background bonds.
Since the US is so multicultural, could that be a reason? Do we just fail to relate or care due to our diversity?