My friend, Tempe Harvey of Brisbane, passed this amusing but thought-provoking piece onto me. It clearly originated in the U.S. – here in Australia, as in England, the head of a university department is not called a Dean – so I’m returning it to its country of origin. Of course, it expresses a simplistic view of wealth acquisition which no Catholic imbued with the Church’s social thinking could accept – the equating of having wealth with earning wealth – but just the same it is a good antidote to the opposite idea that a just society is, ideally, one where governments redistribute wealth so that everybody ends up with the same share of everything.

 

WISE WORDS FROM FATHER TO DAUGHTER

A young woman was about to finish her first year of university. Like so many others of her age, she considered herself to be left-liberal, and she was very much in favour of higher taxes to support her education, as well as for more government social equity programs – in other words, the redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was an unapologetic political conservative, and left him in no doubt that this was how she felt. Because of what she had absorbed in lectures and in occasional chats with her professors – whom she believed taught only objective truth and rational thinking, because that was what they claimed – she was scandalised that he was wedded to the selfish and socially irresponsible idea that he should not be stripped by taxes of most of what he had rightfully earned.

One day she was challenging him on his opposition to higher taxes on the well-to-do and the need for more government programs. Instead of joining battle, he asked her how she was doing in her studies.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 90% average. She let him know that it was tough to maintain; she said she was taking very demanding courses and was constantly studying; and she told that this left her no time to go out partying the way most young people did. She didn’t even have a boyfriend, and in fact she had few university friends, because she had so little time to spare from her studies.

Her father listened with interest, and then asked, “How is your best friend Audrey doing? I recall that she’s a quite capable young lady.” The daughter replied, “Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes; she never studies; and she barely has a 50% average. She is so popular on campus that university for her is a continuous social joy-ride. She’s invited to all the parties, and often she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.”

Her father said, “Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 20% from your average and use it to top up Audrey’s 50%? That way you’ll both end up with a 70% average, and the principles of equality and an even distribution of our society’s benefits which you have so enthusiastically accepted from your professors will prevail.”

The daughter, visibly shocked, angrily fired back, “That’s a crazy idea! How would that be fair? I’ve laboured really hard for my grades – I’ve invested a huge amount of time, and foregone a great deal, to earn them. Audrey has done next to nothing towards her degree – she has just played while I’ve worked my tail off!”

The father slowly smiled, and said, “Welcome to the Conservative side of the fence!”