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 The other week I baby-sat for a family that lives down the street from me. Once I arrived, I fed the kids, popped in a movie, and helped the two girls get ready for bed, a process often plagued by elaborate stories of childhood nothings and prolonged by the occasional plea for freedom from the daily activities of brushing teeth and washing faces. But once all technicalities were put aside, I let the girls pick out three stories for me to read to them before I officially tucked them in and turned off the light. The first story was predictable and the second was also a well-established reading favourite. But it was the third story that stuck with me the most.
It was about a small village that had grown cold and bitter, where no one talked to anyone else, and food was very scarce. At one point, three monks are traveling through the village and decide to stop to eat. One monk gets a large pot and gets it up in the centre of the village and fills it with hot water, and stirs in four smooth stones. One by one, the villagers offer what little bit of food they have left to the soup, from pepper to broccoli to some noodles to small onions to make a giant, steaming pot of stone soup. At this point, all of the people are laughing and talking with each other, all enjoying the joyous gathering the soup has sparked, and anticipating the wonderful soup that they have all contributed to. And when the soup is bowled out and the first few sips are taken, the people cannot believe how truly awesome the soup tastes. The monks move silently on to the next village while the people become once again connected to each other over cups and cups of the hot and delightful broth.
Kind of an odd children’s story, don’t you think? And yet, it is one of the most reflective tales that I have ever read, told with clarity and simplicity. That story, for me, rang true to me as I see neighbours in my own society, like the people in the village, pull away from helping those around them in order to help only themselves. But I am caught wondering, time and time again: why do people not understand that if everyone in Canada was to literally add in their two cents, the overall benefit is greater than any individual outcome would be. If all people add their onion or their pepper, the soup tastes infinitely better then the onion or the pepper by itself. In this equation, the onion and the pepper are people’s taxes, and the soup is our country’s social programs and services. Now, although I may not be very good at math, this seems to be one of the most logical and understandable formulas I have ever done! So if the outcomes are so good, why do people avoid putting in their onions?
When it comes to public and social services, it is important to look at who it is who uses them to explain the answer. For example, the very healthy and able-bodied people in Canada are not going to be using hospitals on a regular basis. However, there are people who have diseases and illnesses that require either intensive or extensive care who may not be able to support the ever rising cost of prescriptions or precise surgery.
To the people who don’t use the health care services regularly, it seems like they’re paying for someone else’s medical costs. This idea no immediate individual gain pulls people into the mentality that it is better to only pay for themselves, no one else, and therefore not pay as many taxes.
But if each person refrains from contributing their taxes (or onions), the system and the people who work in it become run-down, strained under the pressure of incoming patients, and stressed as the services are over-used without any repair or support. When the system is needed by the individuals who didn’t put in their onions, it won’t be there, nor will it be there for the many other people around them who need those services to live. And hasn’t it been proven that a country whose every citizen is healthy allows them to participate in the community? The workforce? And aren’t children who are healthy and well-fed do better in school? Show greater social interaction skills?
While I don’t think the monks were attempting to make a huge political statement with their stone soup, I think that they were definitely on to something; an idea that Canada could use more of. Taxes equal services, and in my world, publicly funded services include shelters where homeless men, women, and children have a place to sleep and are given a meal to keep them going. The services include schools, open to any child regardless of their race, gender, or socio-economical situation; community centres to provide interesting and interactive activities and adequate resources for children and youth to use their time in positive measures, reducing youth crime and substance abuse; roads, sidewalks, and bike paths that are safe, accessible, and maintained so that people can use them without a second thought.
If all of that is a result of my onion and my neighbour’s pepper, I can only imagine what kind of fantastic soup we can all make together.
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