Risk management

Everyone’s bastion of moderate Liberalism, New Yorker magazine, has chimed in on the Bush “ownership society”. I haven’t thought much about this part of the president’s campaign message but I probably should have because it sounds like more of this “rugged individualism” run amuck. As I was telling some friends this weekend, I am generally in favor of individual responsibility and paying for one’s mistakes and vice versa, however, there is such a thing as social responsibility. The idea that as an aggregate body we, as Americans, are in some way mutually responsible for the welfare of one another. By no means should I be supporting my neighbor’s lavish lifestyle or even a their moderate one. This is not the same as saying that I want to make sure that programs like Social Security and Medicare, which are intended to help those in the most acute need, are bolstered not undermined.