Once upon a time there was a group of people. They were a small group and they all were like family, (actually in those days they pretty much were all family but no matter), because of this they trusted each other and were willing to forgive each others shortcomings. In this group everyone contributed as best they could. Some could do the hard physical work of building and maintaining shelters, and others were better suited to grinding grain or caring for children, but everyone contributed as best they could. This was considered what was fair, people contributing as best they could, and people sharing what they had.

They were other groups of people too, much like the group we are considering, since they weren’t a part of our group they weren’t really trusted. Occasionally though they had to deal with each other, if they did there was a lot of ceremony to smooth over the lack of trust, and maybe they traded something or did other things of that sort. On other times bad things would happen, maybe a person from one group would kill someone from the other group, or maybe one group got forced out of their homeland from a forest fire or a flood. Then the groups would fight.

In the groups there were people who weren’t the best at building shelters, or caring for children, they were the best at fighting, that is just what they were good at. Well one day someone came along who was REALLY good at fighting. So not only did they do it when they had to do, but they decided they wanted to, because it was what they were really good at. A lot of people in our group weren’t too crazy about this fighting thing, but it also got them things, like slaves, so they didn’t have to work so much.

So they got more and more stuff. Then something strange happened the people who were responsible for getting the more and more stuff thought they deserved more of it since without them the group wouldn’t have gotten it in the first place. Now the people who were just along for the ride, thought well gee, this isn’t like the old days, since we have so much why can’t we just share it like we used to, then all of us could have more than we used to to, instead of just watching those other people. That is what would be fair.

But other people in the group said, hey, now that we don’t have to worry about other groups messing with us I can make this little mine, and get a lot of ore, and another built some boats for fishing, and another felt safe taking some animals out to pasture without protection. So these people prospered because of the security the fighters gave them. They were happy with the new arrangement, and since they had taken the time to dig the mines, build the boats, and pasture the animals they thought they should be able to keep some of the extra they had gotten, after all this was what was fair, especially since in the old days they didn’t even have so many fish and sheep and ore.

But now all the people who weren’t fighting or working had to see two groups of people who were getting stuff and not sharing it. They offered to help out as best they could, but the groups with lots of stuff said, well that’s great but scaling fish that were caught with the boats I built isn’t really THAT much help, so i will share with you, but only a little. Some people thought that was fair, but others did not.

Then the people who were working or fighting also started owning things. Like land. It became very hard for the people who weren’t doing anything special or owning anything to get by. The people doing special things would just say, well do something special too, but it was hard for the others to understand why they now had to figure out something special to do when in the old days they all just shared everything, and even harder when those who had already built the boats had a leg up on the fishing thing, and those who had already dug the mines were supplying all the ore anyone needed. Fortunately a family just had to come up with one or two people willing to find something special to do to help out the others. So that made it a little easier. But he feeling remained that all would be better if those who had so much just shared, and since there was so much that wasn’t being shared some people even felt betrayed, and figure they just shouldn’t have to contribute at all.

So the moral of this story is that sloth and poverty are the flip side of the coin of achievement and prosperity. By excelling and accumulating the better off created the poor. The poor never did anything different than they did in the past they just got left behind, and even punished when when they could no longer access the things that were now owned. Yes the initiative of those willing to work hard created more stuff, but by some having more others by the nature of things had less. The world left them behind.