I hate the greater good. Not because I don’t like things that are great, or good, but because the so called ‘greater good’ is nowadays little more than an excuse to do something that is wrong.
Its the argument that Obamacare is riding on largely. “Is it so much to ask that you buy your own healthcare so people who can’t afford it can have it?” Basically that is a greater good argument. The goal outcome is something that everybody should morally support, everyone having health care. Then have the sacrifice something that in comparison is far less important, buying it if you can afford it.
Lets take a look at some other examples.
“We should make a mandatory contribution of 50 dollars from every working citizen’s paycheck to support orphanages around the nation” <-- see this? Now, if you are opposed to losing 50 dollars a week, you are opposed to orphans being allowed to eat. Or how about "You should give up your right to privacy so we can catch terrorists" <-- I'm pretty sure this one's gone through already. If you don't support this, you're supporting terrorism! Nobody wants to be seen as a supporter of terrorism, so its difficult to openly oppose this kind of suggestion. Where does it end really? Eventually it will come to the point where if you are even a little bit above the break even point, it becomes your personal responcibility to sacrifice everything you don't need so someone else can have it. How can you justify having 500 dollars in your savings account when some homeless guy has nothing at all? How can you justify living in a nice house when so many people live in the slums? What the greater good leads to, is the idea that if you aren't sacrificing everything you don't strictly need, then you are a bad person. And that is wrong. Its not bad to save your money, its not bad to become financially stable, to chase your dreams, or try to make your home a good place for your family. We need to stop this fascination with the greater good. It isn't truly good at all, because it is only a way to use compassion as a tool for tyrany.