Am I my brother's keeper?

It's an age-old question, quite possibly the first one in recorded history, that Cain asked God when asked what had happened to Abel. And it's a question we ought to be asking ourselves in the wake of what has been happening recently in the world, from Wisconsin to Japan and at numerous points in between.

Are we responsible for those worse off than we are, or should every man (and woman) simply be responsible for taking care of himself (or herself) and the immediate family?

[caption id="attachment_962" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="His blood cries out."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/illust09001.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-962" title="illust09001" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/illust09001-300x300.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

At the very least, we need to be better than Cain, who murdered his brother.

According to the Bible, God's response to Cain's question was that Abel's blood was crying out to him from the ground.

Of course, that isn't enough. Move on to the New Testament and Christ tells us that of course we are our brothers' keepers, that whatever we do to the least among us we are doing to him.

It amazes me how cruel and cold our society has become in less than 40 years. As recently as the 1970s, we had a strongly progressive tax system, where those who enjoyed the fruits of our society the most paid additional taxes. It worked out pretty well. In the '50s, for example, we had a top tax rate of 93 percent. Yet we had the longest sustained period of economic growth we have ever enjoyed.

We had programs to help the poor, programs that flourished under both Democrat and Republican presidents, and most of the time, we came pretty close to balancing our national budget and keeping the public debt under control.

But starting in the '80s, with Ronald Reagan's massive tax cuts for the rich and his massive defense buildup, the deficit -- and the debt -- got out of control. Ever since then, it has been a fight to the death just to get Republicans to pay taxes.

They have been doing everything they can to eliminate social programs, particularly the ones that help the poor. I never understood that. Even if I weren't Roman Catholic and didn't believe in social justice, I wouldn't think it would be a good idea to make things worse for the poor.

You see, there are a lot more poor people than there are rich people.

And if they ever find out just how badly rich Republicans have been screwing them over, if they ever come to realize the truth of the situation, Republicans will need to worry about a lot more than just getting voted out of office.

I've always said that on the most basic level, government's job is to prevent the rich from eating the poor -- and vice versa.

If that's the goal, those rich Republicans are either going to have to loosen up a little ... or build some very high walls around their homes.