By Brian Russell

Did you hear the president say last week that Christians should support his plan to raise taxes on high-earning Americans because it’s the Christian thing to do? He quoted the New Testament, saying, “To whom much is given, much shall be required.” Now, I’m a shrink and a lawyer, not a theologian, but as far as I know, Jesus never said that the government should force people to give to the poor.

As far as I know, Jesus basically said that the government has a role in society (maintaining order, etc.) which gives rise to a civic responsibility to pay taxes (the whole “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” concept) but that looking out for the poor is an additional, separate, moral responsibility each of us should undertake voluntarily (remember that in Jesus’ day, the government didn’t perform charitable functions – churches did – and unlike the president, I think we should actually be heading back in that direction as a nation). In addition, I don’t read “much is required” to mean just handing out money – I think that using one’s ingenuity and talents to make goods and services available to people and give jobs to people in the process (as high-earning Americans do) could also qualify as doing “much.”

The president’s tax “sermon” does have some meaning though – it confirms my previous analyses of his fundamental thought processes: a) He’s an ideological wealth redistributionist; and b) He’s a little grandiose, even for a president (e.g. to claim that Jesus supports his tax policy, especially when earlier last week, he completely disregarded people’s deeply held Christian beliefs in requiring Catholic organizations to provide health insurance plans including birth-control coverage to their employees).

And while I’m on the subject of the government seeking more of our tax dollars in the name of keeping people out of poverty, I’ll take this opportunity to reiterate Dr. Brian’s four-step prescription for anyone who wants to stay out of poverty in America. It has a higher probability of preventing/curing the problem than a lot of prescription drugs do, steps 2-4 of it are free, and we already spend more on step 1 than just about any nation in the world. Here it is:

1. Stay in school;
2. Don’t commit any crimes;
3. Don’t get addicted to anything; and
4. Don’t make a baby unless you’re married to the person with whom you’re making the baby.

If an American kid does those four easy things in life, his/her probability of ending up in poverty is infinitesimal, regardless of what happens in Washington or on Wall St.

By the way, Dr. Brian’s prescription works best when an individual has intrinsic motivation to follow it. Intrinsically motivated people do the right thing because it’s the right thing, not just because they’re chasing a “carrot” like money or running away from a “stick” like jail. Intrinsic motivation needs to be instilled in people early in life, like in their elementary-school years – at home, school and church. If, for example, a man makes it to adulthood not believing that it’s wrong to be a deadbeat dad, you’re not likely to ever “talk him into” believing it. You can still get him to support his kids, but only if you use extrinsic forces to make it be in his best interests to do so.

Just last week, I heard Geraldo Rivera tell Bill O’Reilly that we could reduce poverty in America by encouraging deadbeat dads to do the right thing and take care of their kids. I thought that was a surprisingly naive statement for Geraldo to make. Intrinsically motivated guys who’d be likely to respond to such a values-based message generally aren’t our problem – deadbeat dads of impoverished kids are generally extrinsically motivated guys. We have to meet extrinsic motivation with extrinsic motivation, e.g. by telling a deadbeat dad that we’ll make his life hard if he doesn’t take care of his kids, but perhaps if he does, we’ll help him out with a voucher that he can use to send them to a better school than he can otherwise afford.

Brian Russell, Ph.D., J.D., is a licensed psychologist, attorney at law, lecturer, writer and familiar national television pundit on psychological, legal and cultural issues.

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