You've heard that urban legend about Phil Collins and the drowning boy and the camp counselor that did nothing, right? You know, there's a camp counselor and Phil and the boys are out swimming late and one of the boys starts to drown and the camp counselor just watches him instead of helping? And then like years and years later Phil gets this guy front-row tickets to one of his shows and then puts the spotlight on the guy just as he begins to play "In the Air Tonight"? It makes for a great urban myth because we think to ourselves, What kind of monster would do that? It HAS to be fake, right? But it has just enough truth that we can ALMOST believe it. At least it has enough truth to it that when we tell our younger cousin, or he then goes and tells his little classmates, they're going to believe it. And in your mind, as a little kid you're thinking, there are some seriously messed up people out there that will watch a drowning kid just drown when it's so easy to just throw a life ring.
The book I am reading now, The Dawn of Everything, brings up this situation in relation to how we talk about egalitarian states. The authors of the book talk about throwing a life ring to someone we see struggling to stay above the surface of the water as communism in its purest form (communism as an economic system as opposed to a social system). You, the potential savior, have something I, the drowning person, need. You would certainly throw the ring even if I were someone you despised (given you had any shred of humanity in your heart), freely, of course. In that sense, we live in comparative equality, both of us come out of it with our lives. Compare this to the other extreme of negotiating a mutual price before I agree to throw the life ring in. In an absolute capitalist society, how much money would you want to extract before you threw the ring? And you could certainly extract more the closer I was to actually drowning. Probably nothing or close to, right? (Unless you were a total monster, of course.)
Now let's flip this on it's head. Suppose you are dying, but there is a treatment that could save your life. How much would you be willing to pay for that treatment? You can name any price but you have to go into debt for the part you cannot afford. What if it were your spouse dying? An elder parent? A younger sibling? A dear friend? What if it were your dog or cat? A total stranger?
How much would you be willing to pay to save your marriage? What is the maximum price a genie could extract from you to give you the gift of the job you always wanted? How much would you be willing to pay if you could instantly acquire a skill you've always wanted like to play a musical instrument or learn to surf? If you could make amends with someone who you feel wrongly despised you, is there an amount of money you would pay to be able to sit down at coffee and explain your side of the story?
Back to throwing that life ring? If you had the cure, how much would you ask of a loved one in order to save their life? A dear friend? A total stranger? If your spouse cheated on you, is there an amount of money they could pay to convince you to stay? If a friend wanted to learn a skill you knew and was willing to pay any amount of money for your time to teach it, how much would you ask? If an old friend who hurt you wanted to sit down at coffee so that they could explain their side, how much money would it cost them?
If a dear friend were hospitalized and you were asked to make a donation towards their foreseeable medical costs, how much would you donate? An acquaintance? An old high school classmate? If a friend said they were going to run a marathon to raise money for a charity you endorsed and asked you to make a donation based on mileage, what's the total you would be willing to make? Would it matter how far they planned on going, a 10k (6.2 miles) versus a marathon (26.2 miles)?
Revisiting our drowning person. How sure would you need to be that they were drowning before you helped? If you see a person choking in a restaurant at the table next to yours, how long would you wait before aiding them? Does it matter how many other people are around or at their table? What if that person WERE at your table? What if it were your spouse? Your dear friend who is there with their spouse? If a family member were having financial troubles, how much would you be willing to lend? What if it were the second or third time they came to you? What about a dear friend?
You are on a pier, a life ring nearby. You see a stranger being swept out in the current. They call out for help. How willing would you be to help? What if there were plenty of other people around? What if that person were your spouse? What if it were a dear friend? How far would you go?
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