The Great Society, Reincarnation, and the Social Welfare Net

A Tract Book Essay

By

Anthony J. Fejfar, B.A., J.D., Esq., Coif

© Copyright 2007 by Anthony J. Fejfar

I am a Liberal, and I am in favor of the Social Welfare Net. I suppose part of it has

to do with compassion, but I’m not sure. You see, it is pretty hard to find a “bleeding

heart liberal,” most of us are pretty thick skinned. In fact, most of the positions that we

take are based upon enlightened rational self interest. Instead of using the base emotion

of selfishness to guide our decisions, we choose rational self interest, which is a function

of reason more than anything else.

The idea of the Social Welfare Net is that regardless of what income you might

have, in the Great Society, you are entitled to live a life where your basic human needs

are met. Thus, each of us is entitled to have basic food, clothing, shelter, education,

medical treatment, transportation, and entertainment (G rated I suppose).

One of the arguments in favor of the Great Society and the Social Welfare Net is

that a culturally sophisticated person finds it distasteful to live in a world where people

are starving to death, or are homeless, or ignorant. Compassion aside, from an aesthetic

point of view poverty is disgusting. I follow Kant’s idea that persons are to be each

given a very high value intrinsically, regardless of their utility to society. Rather than

murder or force poor people into suicide, the culturally sophisticated person prefers to

pay the freight so that the poor can have a decent life
 Now, another reason to favor the Social Welfare Net and the Great Society is the

existence of Reincarnation and Karma. As I have argued previously, the reincarnational

system teaches us that as we sow so we shall reap. As we do unto others, so it will be

done unto us. So, if I choose to live, without protest, in a society with no Social Welfare

Net, my Karma for the next life will be to be a poor person in a world with no Social

Welfare Net.

In response, I, as a matter of rational self interest, as a believer in the Great

Society, and the Social Welfare Net, am purchasing “Karma Insurance” so that in any life

that I might live in the future, I will be guaranteed the basics of food, clothing, shelter,

transportation, education, entertainment, etc. From a Karmactic point of view, one

should always try to moderate extremes in one’s culture or face the likelihood that you

will be dealing with one of the extremes in a future life. While you might try to gamble

that you will be rich financially in most of your lives, statistically, this seems doubtful.

There really are not that many millionaires in America relative to the population as a

whole. The odds are you will end up poor.

One final objection to the Social Welfare Net is that it is impractical to put in place

because of the working poor and lower middle class. The argument is that people on

welfare should not make more than a working poor person. I am not sure about that. If

the job cannot pay a living wage then maybe the person is better off on welfare from an

individual as well as a societal point of view. Additionally, in the Great Society, there

are many governmental programs open to the working poor and the middle class. For

example, in the great society all schools, public or private, should provide a good

nutritious breakfast and lunch for every student. No child should go to school hungry
and no child should go home hungry from school. Education at every level should be

free or at minimal cost so that all can participate. I argue that such a world is possible

and is economically efficient. The Great Society is filled with Great Companies who

have Great Employees working for them. The companies who invest the most in their

employees make the most money. The countries that invest the most in its people do

very well economically. The Social Welfare Net and the Great Society is the rational

choice.