The Woodworker Allegory
by Christopher Morris
Ethics Class Discussion topic:
Do you think that modern American society promotes self-interested moral behavior? Do you think that this is a bad thing?
Response from a Classmate -Anonymous:
I do think that American society promotes self-interested behavior. I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing! I think that we should worry about ourselves. Sure, there are people in the world who have awful lives, with far less rights than we as Americans have, but knowing this does not shrink someone's personal plight. People want to have the best lives that they can have. Good for them. I do not think that people who are ambitious and interested in their own success should be criticized for it. Not everyone wants to give back. Some people who want to give back are badgered by charity after charity for money, and they can't necessarily give to all of them. Just because somebody is their own top priority does not mean that they are a bad person.
My Dissenting Opinion:
I do not disagree with all of your points. I agree that "people who are ambitious and interested in their own success should (not) be criticized" and of course there are “people in the world who have awful lives, with far less rights than we as Americans have, but knowing this does not shrink someone's personal plight”. I think the previous quotes have much truth to them. But before we start thinking on a global scale of fairness, lets ponder a national one.
It would be too easy to point at investment bankers and Wall Street barons and criticize them for not "pitching in their fair share". So instead of a banker lets use the example of an independent wood worker. This person makes furniture by hand, buying his or her own wood, carving it by hand and selling it to happy customers. The craftsman hard work leads him to much success. The wood worker's success is the payoff for countless hours of hard work. And if that person doesn’t want to "give back” to society so what? Why should they have to give anything to anyone? They, alone, earned their success, right?
Well this kind of thinking does not take into account many factors that led the wood worker to his or her success. Where this line of argument is short sighted is in the successful entrepreneur’s personal journey to success. Did society help this person? Lets say this person never took out subsidized student loans or grants, never received cash, food or heating assistance; Was this person helped out by anyone but themselves? Did the person receive anything from our American society? The answer is undoubtedly YES:
Someone took the time to train and teach this person, most likely a teacher or professor that was paid in full, or in part, by the people of this country. Your theory would also dismiss a couple other facts; the goods and customers the woodworker directly benefited from, had to travel to his workshop over roads that we, the people of the United States, paid to build and still pay to maintain. If this wood worker's shop caught on fire he would expect that firefighters, paid for by the people, to put out that fire. The wood worker also does not have to generally worry about someone stealing his furniture because of our police, who are paid for by the tax paying people of this country (quick note: Taxpayers include anyone who buys anything in this country).
These obligations to the wood worker are part of the social contract that, in sum, contributes to our great American society. At some level, all of us contribute to and benefit from this social contract.
The purpose of my woodworker allegory is to highlight that, in our great nation, reward comes with responsibility. Simply put, no one succeeds in this country entirely on his or her own. The responsibility for those who have achieved success is merely to pay forward a small portion of what they themselves were indiscriminately afforded.
What if someone’s starting point was closer to success than another persons (being born rich rather than poor), surely the lucky man cannot be blamed for his luck, right?
Right, however there are things that need to be taken into consideration when dictating what is fair and what is not. Important questions need to be asked. Is the poor-born American afforded similar, if not the same opportunities to personally succeed in life that the rich-born American is? (Obviously not)
When a person who succeeds does not recognize the help they have gotten along the way, they become prideful, selfish and greedy. I am not talking about a complete leveling of this “playing field”; this is an extreme and unrealistic request that neither most people nor I expect or argue for. But there needs to be some leveling of the mere opportunity to succeed, if for nothing else to ensure that every opportunity does not just automatically go to a privileged few. This is the true American dream, opportunity for all.
