Is giving ingrained in us? Do we have to do it? Just because we know it’s right? A couple of stories from The Samaritan’s Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor. Here, the author Deborah Stone, quotes the “Metropolitan Diary” of the New York Times: “Ned Helfand was walking past Madison Square Garden recently when a […]
The Samaritan’s Dilemma, Part 2
Is there such a thing as altruism? True altruism? I’m a little farther along in The Samaritan’s Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor? by Deborah Stone. The chapter I’m reading now is about altruism–does it really exist? Thomas Hobbes (1651) felt that every act of kindness is really just a form of caring for one’s […]
The Samaritan’s Dilemma, Part 1
Okay, so I’m 60 pages into a new book called The Samaritan’s Dilemma: Should Government Help Your Neighbor? by Deborah Stone. You know the drill. You pull up to a stoplight, and there’s a panhandler holding up a cardboard sign, saying something along the lines of “Will Work for Food” or “Hungry. Lost job.” You […]