Moral Debt and Spiritual Equity

This post is a follow-up to my post on Kin Egoism.

Consider the following analogy:

Altruism is like debt and Egoism is like equity.

First, what are debt and equity? For a company, debts are obligations to (typically) external entities (i.e., who the company owes). On the other hand, equity is how ownership (and thus, profit) of the company is distributed (i.e., who the company is).

Morality describes the obligations you have to society. Thus, morality in general, including altruism, is like debt. Egoism relates to the desires of the self, so it is like your equity.

Your Surplus Goes to Equity

We all have external obligations. We pay taxes, we make donations to church and charity, we pay the mortgage. But what do we do with the rest? The surplus goes to equity, of course.

That is, like a business, we must satisfy our external obligations first, and whatever we do with the remainder is, by analogy, the equity share. It is a reflection of your true identity.

Tithing and Consecration

When I was young, I learned about two different patterns of religious giving: Tithing and Consecration. Tithing is a commitment to pay a portion of your income to the church. Consecration is a commitment to dedicate all of your time and resources to building the kingdom of god. Those who pay tithing satisfy a moral obligation (i.e., a debt). Those who consecrate their lives are one with God (i.e., God is the equity shareholder).

God and Caesar

Jesus once taught that we should “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” A lot has been written about the meaning of this statement. One common interpretation is that you have both secular and spiritual obligations.

But consider the interpretation that what you owe Caesar is like a debt (i.e., it represents a limited social obligation). And what you owe God is more like equity. In the end, we all consecrate our lives to something (because the surplus always goes somewhere). That thing — the owner of your self — is your God.