Yesterday was national “free candy day”, known to many as Halloween. I typically sit out on the driveway and hand out free candy to all the kids as they come by. Today was no different… except for the mosquitoes. And the rain. I soon moved inside and commenced handing out the free candy to the few that braved the mosquitoes and the rain.
I choose to give out candy. Some do not. As I look around the neighborhood, there are many houses with no lights on. They have chosen not to. Maybe they choose to not afford it. Maybe they choose not to participate for personal or religious reasons. Or maybe they just simply don’t want to or are not home. But for whatever reason, those searching for the free candy will be disappointed when they visit those houses.
I choose how much I give out. If you are a teenager with a minimal or no costume and you come in search of free candy at my house, you will not get much. You can complain about it all you want, and yes, some do, but you aren’t getting much. You have to at least try to dress up. It doesn’t even have to be good. And then you complain about not getting enough free stuff? Now, if you are a cute little kid who spent time with your parents or older siblings and have come up with a very cute costume and have spent time getting ready, I just may give you the entire bucket of candy. I like being able to reward people for their efforts.
I give out the good stuff. At least what I think is the good stuff. Lots of chocolate. I remember when I was a kid, coming home after my evening of hunting free candy. I’d dump the bucket out on the table and immediately pull out all the stuff I didn’t want. Some of it I would consider more of a trick than a treat. I’m sure they meant well, but it just wasn’t what I wanted. Each person in my neighborhood gives out different things. Some I would like and some I would not. That’s good, because each kid likes different things. But it’s nice to be able to choose the quality of the goods we hand out.
There are places and organizations around here that collect donations for their fall festivals where kids from all around come to pretend to be interested in your booth so they can get free candy. When I give money to these organizations, I have no control over what kind of candy or how much each kid gets. Some people like this. They don’t want to have to do any of the work or thinking. They just want to give their money away and trust that it will be used well and that the candy will be given away equally and fairly to everyone… even those that don’t even attempt to dress up and make little or no effort to get the candy.
The point is, I like to have that choice. I like to decide who I support and how much I give out. I also have a budget. If I choose to give my entire budget to another organization, then I have given up my freedom to choose. I have also given up the joy of seeing the faces of the kids that put in a great effort as I choose to reward them with large amounts of candy.
It is easy to throw money… I’m sorry… donate money to a cause and pretend we are doing something about it. It is much easier than actually doing something about it. We want everyone else to “fix this” when we ourselves want to do very little and then complain because we didn’t get much candy. It is not the role of the government to take care of our social issues and to “fix this”. That is my job and your job. The more government programs we put into place, the higher our taxes are and my candy budget gets smaller. Soon I will be relegated to handing our one piece of the cheap stuff to each kid, just like everyone else. My choices will be made by someone else and somehow that will be considered “fair”.
Well said.