I want to explore two different strategies for bequeathing one’s assets to subsequent generations. One we may call the “mathematical equality” formula. The other the “Marxist situational” formula.
I shall illustrate my argument with two anecdotes. The principle of mathematical equality is straightforward enough and is used in my will. Our son died and the surviving three girls share “even stevens” in my worldly goods that I leave behind.
But something fell outside my legacy; I had sold our house after my wife died. The question: How should I disperse the income?
In casting about for a biblical warrant to provide some guidance I turned to Jesus’ parable of the vineyard. “I choose to give to this last, as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?” (Matthew 20: 14 ff).
This parable resonated in my mind with Marx’s open-ended dictum “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
The parable evokes the possibility that the mathematical equality formula for divvying up assets may not, in fact, be the most humane and moral principle to apply to my possessions. Accordingly, instead of carving up the house proceeds in three same-size portions, I chose to give a larger share to a single daughter with a do-it-yourself (artificial insemination donor) child. The other two daughters had husbands with whom they could, at least in theory, share economic burdens.
A further instance of “unequal fairness” may be seen in the experience of a friend whose father, recognizing her single state, left her a larger portion than that bequeathed to her two-income family brothers.
This left the brothers disgruntled, even wondering if their father had been entirely compos mentis in drawing up his will. To maintain family harmony, my friend assured her brothers that as executor she would effectively, in contradiction of her father’s explicit last will and testament, divide his legacy equally amongst them. This she did, depriving herself of resources that she could well use as she advances into older age without a regular source of income or pension.
So, what to do when facing the dilemma of how to dispose of one’s assets – use the mathematical equality formula, or the Marxist situational formula? One thing that pulls me toward the Christian tradition is its acknowledgment of life’s complexity and ambiguity. Perhaps we may need to struggle in reaching an answer to our question. I myself am attracted to the Marxist situational formula even while conceding that I likely don’t have the courage to apply it.