The Keys to A Healthy Person and a Nation - Balance and Unburdening - Neither Extreme Capitalism Nor Socialism

Three merchant ships set sail from a foreign land on a long distance journey for home. All three ships have three captains, a full crew and a similar contingency of passengers. All three ships are heavy laden with gold and trade goods belonging to the ship owners and officers. They also carry a large number of crew and passengers and their property.

Midway through their journey, the three were beset by a small storm that separated them by a few leagues. When the storm had passed, all three were within sight of each other and all on course, but were too far apart for mutual assistance should any run into trouble, but trouble was on the way. Riding the tall wind of the storm, they were beset upon by pirates, in sleeker, faster corsairs. Based upon the factors of wind, speed, current and craft, the ships would be over taken by the pirates within a few hours and could not regroup to form a collective defense. Woefully outgunned and under-fitted for defense, the three ships' only hope is to run for it.

As each captain, assessed their situation, each realized that to live another day, to make most use of the wind, they would have to both lighten their loads and balance their ships.

The Captain of Ship 1 decided to start with what he valued the least and ordered all the crew and passengers to push their property overboard. Then, if needed, he would push the property of the owners and officers’ overboard.

The Captain of Ship 2 brought everyone together and explained that God would spare them if they found the unbelievers among them and set them, their families and their property into the life boats and to fend for themselves.

In the third ship, the last Captain took his earnings in gold, called the crew and passengers together, and in view of all dropped his gold overboard and then asked everyone, including the crew, who had more than they needed to survive, to immediately throw theirs overboard. He also indicated that everyone's lives were equally important and that all would make sacrifices proportionate to their capacity to do so. He said that it didn’t matter how the ship became unbalanced, but that they would do what was necessary to balance it without concerning themselves with how it got that way.

So who survived?

Here’s the truth, in any decent, democratic community or nation–the push and pull of politics, the disparity of providence, the ability of those who acquire power and are entrusted with power to accumulate wealth, the ability of the masses to exert their will- will always create imbalances and burdens that will sometimes be too great to bear in times of crisis or are too inequitable. Furthermore, in a civil, moderate, sensible, democratic manner those imbalances and burdens will at times need to be readjusted and lightened. This process must be equitable and must necessarily be borne by those who can do so and done in proportion to their capacity, without anguishing over what caused the crisis in the first place or how the ship of the nation became so dangerously unbalanced or so precariously under siege. More on the history of the three merchant vessels.

© Loren M. Lambert, September 17, 2015.