re: #291 HappyWarrior

L

I think that at its core explains why I’ve never embraced economic right wing thinking. Calvinism never influenced my grandparents or parents and thus me. I have one Great Grandparent who was raised Lutheran but the rest were Catholics of the Roman and Byzantine variety. Obviously those denominations have their own root problems but never this “Tough shit if you starve because you can’t afford something.” No child or adult for that matter should go without a meal.

One of the reason Jews are lefty on economics is more historical than theological… genetic memory, if you will. Throughout medeival Europe and a few hundred more years, and throughout the Caliphate, taxes were assessed on the Jewish community collectively. Either we all, together, come up with the required amount, or we all, together, get evicted. There’s no per person amount, or per acre, no marginal rates. The Jews of Kiev, or the Jews of Salamanca, or the Jews of Frankfurt, either pay up or leave. Punishment for criminal offenses worked on a similar principle — we’re all of us responsible for the actions of any one of us.