I certainly don't plan on hitting all 50+ rules, and I don't think I want to make this a weekly feature, but some of these "rules" really do bug me.  Last week I talked about how lowering taxes actually can increase revenue.  This week I want to talk about another rule:

8. You are your brother's and sister's keeper.

Jessica responded by saying that you are also not their parent, and that people have to stand on their own two feet at some point.  And while that's absolutely true, I once again think you guys are missing the larger point.  Exactly who is my brother and my sister?  The implication by the liberals who wrote these 50+ rules is that everyone is my brother and my sister, and I have some sort of responsibility to them... an obligation to help them.  The further implication is that this obligation must then be enshrined in law, such that we "donate" our money to people we don't know, and possibly don't even like, at the expense of our real family... our spouses, children, and actual brothers and sisters.  I wrote about this about a year ago in regards to a health care reform proposal at the time:

And for as mean as it sounds... to be honest... I don't care about you.  I mean, in the sense that we're all human beings, and I don't like to see other humans suffering... I do care.  And if I could invent a solution where everyone always got the best level of care possible, I would... in a heartbeat.  But this isn't some futurist movie on the Sci Fi channel.  This is real life.  And if my caring about complete strangers means that people I know and love may not get the best care that they can get, then I'll live with not caring about you.

That's not to say that I'm not a generous person.  There are several friends of mine, and family members who will attest to the opposite.  But that's because I love them, and want to see the best for them.  And if I'm the one who is in a position to help them, then I always try to be there to provide that help.  But if I have to choose between helping people I love, or helping a complete stranger... I'll choose the one I love every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

I do help my actual brothers and sisters.  I also help my friends.  I do this out of love.  But every time some new tax comes around that takes away my money to "keep my other brothers and sisters", that leaves me less to help my actual brothers and sisters with.  And they're the ones I really care about.  More importantly, the help I give my family is better than anything the government can give.

Government help is not only uncaring and cold, but it's without real understanding of the problems facing the person in need, because it is detached and far away.  I wrote very extensively on this around the same time as the other post in something entitled "How Liberalism Destroys Society":

Liberalism outsources all benevolence to a large government body, and takes away the ability of individuals to help other individuals.  People today are forced to only care about themselves, and it's all the fault of caring liberals.  The reason is simple.  Taxation is a very poor way to create benevolence, and takes away all the extra money that people would use to be caring towards others individually.  Not only that, but it's faceless, nameless, and allows people to be disconnected from the intended goal.  Finally, it allows the recipient of that benevolence to be disconnected from those who have provided much needed help, and removes incentive to do something useful with that gift.
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On the other side of the coin, when the face of the giver is shown to those who receive assistance, I believe that it creates an incentive to do more with that gift than they might normally do with it.  When you know the person who gave you help, and build some sort of bond (or that bond already exists through love), then you work harder to make that dollar do more, because you don't want to let down the person who helped you.

But all of that comes only when we help our families.  Our real brothers and sisters.  I understand that many people think that it "takes a village", and that they wish for a time when we are all harmonious, and care about each equally.  That is a laudable goal, but it just isn't going to happen in our life time... in fact it will only happen on television shows with transporters and warp drive.

So stop expanding the definition of family until it is so large as to become meaningless.  Stop taking away my ability to give real help to my brothers and sisters... my real brothers and sisters... the ones I love, not the ones I don't know.