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Budgeting as a Moral Practice and Why I Support Proposition 30

By Aryeh Cohen

URL: http://www.jewishjournal.com/justice_in_the_city/item/budgeting_as_a_moral_practice_and_why_i_support_proposition_30

For argument's sake let us agree that we all believe in the dignity of every human being.  That is, we believe that a person's dignity is an inalienable part of their being, to borrow a phrase from the founders. In religious terms one would say that every person was created in the image of God. This is perhaps the most forceful way of saying that each and every person's value as a person is not contingent upon anything external to that person, and that no one has a right to act in such a way as to harm that dignity, that image of God, that tzelem elohim. It is as if when one damages another's dignity one does harm to God.

Okay, let us assume that we all agree with this. How do we translate this into practice? How do we move the rhetorical statement to action—moral and legislative at once—which incorporates this understanding into the fabric of our polities, city, state and country?

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