iBrasten

"Social Responsibility" is a term that too often benefits the Left in American politics. As I often do, I blame the Republicans for allowing this to happen. The classical Liberal⁽¹⁾ position should -- if argued properly -- stand up favorably in light of 'social responsibility' critiques. Especially when compared to the relatively laughable claims the Left has to the term.

Personal and Social Responsibility

Republicans have focused almost exclusively on Personal Responsibility through my (relatively short) lifetime. While Personal Responsibility is absolutely a critical component of classical Liberalism, it is not a refutation of Social Responsibility in the purest sense. The Liberal feels a responsibility to help those in need and provide time and/or financial resources to help those who are incapable of taking care of themselves or have fallen onto hard times. The Liberal should be donating to charities, volunteering, or providing the unique services and skills according to each person's abilities.

It's entirely accurate that the Liberal is against government-ran charity and welfare programs, but this opposition must be qualified and detached from the sense of responsibility the Liberal feels to those less fortunate. The consistent failures and near-criminal overhead of government programs gives us the moral high-ground from which to argue, but the Republican Party has clung too heavily to the Personal Responsibility argument while letting Social Responsibility slide.

Delegated [Social] Management

In order to fully re-claim the Social Responsibility term, it's important to re-brand the Left's idea of social responsibility. Terminology is important in these types of arguments; this is why you get different terms for the same position like Anti-choice/Pro-life.

I propose we use the term Delegated Management (or Delegated Social Management) from now on when referring to the Left's "charity" agenda. It more accurately portrays the fact that the Left's agenda largely consists of sending OTHER people's money to some distant bureaucracy -- effectively making the less fortunate somebody else's problem. It also provides a favorable comparison for the Liberal who, rather than push the problem on to others, prefers to do the charitable acts and finance the problems himself.

1. The term "liberal" originally referred to personal-liberty, laissez-faire thinkers. In America, we'd call them Libertarians or classical-Liberals. when I refer to Liberals in this instance, I mean the classical-Liberal / Libertarian.