If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
That's worth remembering in an election season. Libertarians talk about "enlightened self-interest", but that light doesn't come from Christ as often as it should.
What's in God's best interest? Or, brought down to earth a tad, what's in the best interest of the country as a whole and the world as a whole?
Note that looking out after others isn't always going to give the bleeding-heart liberal response. For instance, as someone of modest income without health insurance, "Obamacare" would be a net plus for me, but it sems to be a net minus for the country as a whole, likely dragging the economy down and hurting the poor by decreasing chances for an entry-level job due to employer mandates driving up the cost of low-end labor.
That being said, a bit more compassion towards others is helpful, from making our rhetoric more loving and kind [insert latest Ann Coulter misstep] to looking out after the pocketbooks of "the least of thes" as well as our own.
Except that "Obamacare" would not be a net minus for the country as a whole.
Check it out: http://www.urban.org/publications/412665.html
Also, there's been a lot of clamor about employer mandates, but if you think about how the penalty works, the magnitude of that concern fades. The size of penalty is $2,000 per worker, with the first 30 workers exempted. This means that if a company employs exactly 50 workers, then the company would have to pay a $40,000 fine. If the average pay for a worker is $10 an hour (in other words, everyone gets close to the minimum wage), this fine would add 4 percent to the company's wage bill. If the employer currently pays for some care, he would be able to stop paying for the care, which would offset much or all of this cost.
It's worth noting bby comparison, past minimum wage increases have been on the order of 15-20 percent. Extensive research has found that these increases in labor costs have had little or no impact on employment, meaning that firms have been able to absorb this additional expense without substantially changing their operations.
Posted by: NKR | October 29, 2012 at 11:43 AM