A Fish For The Future

"I can't give you money. There would be no end to it if I started. You and your sister would take every last buck from me." pg 51. This is pretty similar to the popular saying where its better to give a poor person a rod and teach him how to fish for himself than giving him a fish. If people get accustomed to getting stuff the easy way, they will become nonstop beggars. They will have to depend on others in order to survive, and what they will give back is nothing more than being consumers. Our world can't afford to have people who are consumers but give nothing back to society. It is as if a few had to work for the good of the many, without the many giving something back to help those few. It is almost related to the selfish gene theory proposed by Dawkins, where those that try and get something out of others without them having to give anything back, is the same as how there are organisms that decide to not help other organisms back because they know they will be looked after anyways. The problem with this is that then a person will appear that will decide not to help them out if they don't work, which also applies in this case with those that work and those that don't. But then there are also people who can't work by themselves, including people with disabilities and those that don't have the tools to do so. In the first case it is really hard to actually demand that that person work to get what he wants instead of giving him what he needs, since the problem originates in that the person is physically unable to do what we want him to do. In the second case, though, there is a way in which we can follow the idea of not giving him exactly what he needs, but help him get it himself.

.

It's called education. Those that are poor sometimes lack the tools to do things we want them to do instead of begging in the streets. If we give them education as a tool, rather than giving them money as a usable resource, we will be enabling them for the future. But then comes the problem you see in the book. Willhelm was well educated, and still there is the problem of him not having enough money, so he has to rely on his father. When a person is given the opportunity to do something, and is given the tools for it, there is no reason why he should not do it. Those that don't appreciate the opportunities they are given, should not be helped after in terms of giving them the things they need. Only those that are willing to change and think about their future should be given another chance, a chance to advance and take care of themselves.