Few of us are ever faced with making the sort of life or death decisions we routinely hear about in the news. Fortunately, most of us are spared from navigating the complex ethical terrain that cases like Terri Schiavo’s raise. And yet there are decisions we face everyday that–whether we realize it or not–have very real moral implications.

In BustedHalo’s new Moral Dilemmas feature we hope not only to raise some of these issues for our readers, we also want to ask them to participate in helping to resolve them. After reading the story of Jason Pascal below please tell us what the “right thing to do” is via the quiz at the bottom.

Read “The Wrinkle” to our dilemma.

Read our moral theologian’s analysis of the dilemma and our readers’ responses.

THE DILEMMA

Jason Pascal is a successful, 42-year-old investment banker living in New York City. Last February he was informed that he was going to be made a partner at the prestigious firm he has worked at for well over a decade. The promotion means that his annual income–which is already solidly in the mid-six-figure range–will now be tied exclusively to his firm’s profits which could potentially bump his annual compensation into the millions.

To celebrate the good news Jason bought himself a pair of $800 shoes that he had been eyeing in a store window for weeks. After work some of his colleagues took him out for drinks at Reidy’s an, upscale eatery in his company’s building (because they worked in such a high-stress environment Jason and a number of his co-workers often went out for drinks to unwind).

After a number of rounds he decided to head home. Once he stepped outside he recognized that familiar feeling of being pretty buzzed and he began to stumble up the street toting on his shoulder his new shoes still in their bag. Just as he turned onto Fifth Avenue and stopped to admire the selection in the store window of another chic establishment he heard a voice speaking to him from below.

“Hey, excuse me, think you could see clear to give me a little money?”

An older, balding man with a scraggly, graying beard sat right beneath the store’s display window and looked up at Jason.

“I’d appreciate anything you could spare” he added.

“No. Sorry. I’m kind of tapped out at the moment” Jason said.

Jason hated when this sort of thing happened. Didn’t he have enough on his plate already with the long hours he worked and the child support and alimony payments to his ex wife? (Even with the slight buzz he still had on he couldn’t help but be steamed at the thought that a hefty percentage of his increased income would be going right into her bank account.) He was a generous man he thought. Just after Christmas each year he wrote out checks totaling $1,000 to five different charitable organizations, including one that helped the homeless.

“Tapped out?” the homeless man snorted. “I see you’ve got some fancy shoes in that bag of yours and you’re already here looking for another pair! What the hell kind of tapped out is that! You’re telling me you can’t give me a couple bucks so I can keep warm tonight.”

Jason fumed. What business did this bum have challenging him? Here he was working hard and earning an honest living and some guy who hasn’t probably had a job in decades is giving him grief! Keep warm? What was that code for? Sleeping in a shelter? Paying for a room in a flophouse? Or, worse, heading to the liquor store or some drug dealer to get high?

‘No, no way’ he thought. That’s why he gave to charity every year. At least with them he knows the money isn’t just going into a bottle or a bag of dope.

Jason looked closer and could see that the man was just wearing garbage bags for shoes and that his eyes were watering from the extreme cold and wind. His hands were chapped and when he coughed it sounded like the noise from the coffee makers he sees in restaurants. He wasn’t sure this guy would even make it through the night.

Time for you to decide. What’s the right thing for Jason to do?

Read the second step in the dilemma.

Read our moral theologian’s analysis of the dilemma and our readers’ responses.

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