SENSE AND SENSIBILITY INDEED

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY INDEED

Sense and/or Sensibility—Not/Neither

You may be familiar with Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, in which an estate is entailed to the son, who is married and has a son of his own, whereas the stepmother and her three daughters are left with a small legacy, from which they will be expected to live on the annual income, and turned out from the estate to live in a small cottage.   The father’s dying request was that his son do something to provide for his stepmother and his sisters.  John Dashwood wishes to do the right thing by his daughters, but his wife, Fanny, is reluctant, and, as we can see, dissuades him from doing more than is meet.  As I was watching the movie, and then rereading the relevant passage in the book, I was struck with how prescient Austen was.   The following is the Dashwoods’ conversation, interspersed with imaginary conversation btween today’s Democrats and Republicans, the Democrats echoing John Dashwood, in trying to do the right thing, and the Republicans echoing Fanny Dashwood, who pretends her  selfishness if really pragmatism .

JD  says “It was my father’s last request that I should assist his widow and daughters.”

You know what our founding fathers says in the Preamble to the Constitution, that we should  “promote the general welfare.”

FD: “He did not know what he was talking of…ten to one he was light-headed at the time.”        

You know that the founding fathers weren’t thinking about providing for those who are too lazy to look out for themselves.  I am sure they meant nothing so extreme as providing unemployment insurance and cutting payroll taxes and other forms of welfare.

JD thought that he could spare the sum of 3000 pounds, from this they could secure an income of 500 pounds a year, in addition to the 500 pounds they would get anyway.

But FD thought that Mr D would not have expected JD to give away “half your fortune from your own child.”

Just think how our grandchildren will suffer if there is any debt from the government having helped their grandparents.

JD asserted that he had made a promise, he couldn’t neglect his sisters; he must do something for them.

FD says “Indeed…[but that money] will be gone forever…and could never be restored to our poor little boy. “

                That money will increase our debt by millions; it can never be restored for our grandchildren.

JD “…to be sure…the time may come when Harry will regret that so large a sum was parted with.”  He thought perhaps he should reduce the sum by half.

FD agreed tentatively…why should he do so much for his sisters, they weren’t even his real sisters…only “half-blood.”

After all, a lot of these people are not important to us, they are minorities, lazy and shiftless, who won’t look out for themselves. 

JD:  “…they can hardly expect more.”
FD:  Who cares what they would expect?...indeed…they will be sure of doing well…they can all live very comfortably together on the interest…

                It is not our responsibility to look out for the poor, they have enough to iive on.

JD:  “Perhaps I should give something of the annuity kind just to their mother, say, 100 pounds a year.”

                We should be sure their social security is protected, they could live very well on that.

FD:  “…but then, if she should live 15 years, we should all be taken in.”

                But think how much we have to pay out if s/he lives for 15 years or more.

JD:  “…her life cannot be worth half that…”

Right, what use are they to society after they reach retirement age?  We should raise the retirement age, that would reduce the payout.

FD:  “…and after all you have no thanks for it.  They think themselves secure, you do no more than what is expected, and it raises no gratitude at all.”

                They will just complain that you don’t do more, and won’t even vote for you anyway.

JD:  “…you are right…they would only enlarge their style of living, and would not be the richer for it at the end of the year.”

And after all, they are not so poor.  I have heard that 97% of them even have refrigerators.  If you give them more money, they just start living high on the hog, and still have no more left at the end of the year.

FD:  They (the mother and sisters) can “move to a comfortable small house…five hundred a year?  What on earth can four women want for more than that?—they will live so cheap!   Their housekeeping will be nothing at all.  They will have no carriage, no horses, and hardly any servants; they will keep no company, and can have no expenses of any kind.  Only conceive how comfortable they will be!  Five hundred a year!  I am sure I cannot imagine how they will spend half of it…”  It should be more than enough [for us] to send them “presents of fish and game…in season.”

When they no longer own their home, they can rent an apartment; they can then live so cheaply, they can use public transportation, they won’t even need a car.  Their worries will be diminished, they will live so comfortably and conveniently.  They don’t need a large income, it should be enough that they can go to the food pantry.