"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
-Benjamin Franklin-
So where do you draw the line between not helping anyone at all and doing so much for people that it is crippling?
ReplyDeleteAnnika,
ReplyDeleteI think on a personal level, in regards to helping people, that is really hard to define. There are too many different situations and there can be no hard, fast rule for helping, but I do believe people helping people is priority.
However, when I read that statement, I would draw the line around the government(s) helping. I think churches and individuals are best suited to help those in need. Our government has way too many programs, that in the end don't help people, and just as many that don't work.
I truly believe that if we could see all the allocated dollars given to each organization, the money spent on offices, governmental employees to oversee the programs etc., and the money "leftover" to go to those in need, WE WOULD BE APPALLED!
Just my .02!
It goes even further than what money goes to what organization. It's also about what the organizations that receive the money for the poor end up doing with it.
ReplyDeleteFor example: Organizations that are set up to end homelessness, are often just covers for political campaigning organizations. They spend half their money trying to elect liberals because thats what they think will help the poor.
Then when you look at what the government does in direct attempts to ease the plight of the poor, you see that they almost always make the problem worse; or create completely new and more complex problems.
They are an endless cycle of terrible outcomes and create more poverty than any other contributing factor. Oust them All!!!
Church has it right. It's not that trying to help the poor is bad. I don't think anyone would say that. It's more about how the governments attempts to help the poor become systems that entice people to fail.
ReplyDeleteAfrican American Females were incentivised fincanially to have out of weddlock children. We pay them for it. They are then given increased government checks for having more kids. Now, we have a culture of fatherless urban children. 50% of them won't graduate high-school.
This would never happen through a private charity. But the issue goes even deeper then that. Because the sad truth is; very little you do for the poor will give them the opportunity to change their predicament. Working at a soup kitchen 7 days a week will feed people, but it wont get them out of the soup kitchen. Going to africa may help a small amount of people for a small amount of time. But when you leave, life goes back to normal. Charity work is more about the change in the person doing the work, then it is about the changing of the world, or saving of the poor. It's about creating a joy in sacrifice, a drive in yourself to give.
We cannot save the poor. They will have to do it themselves. Thats why Franklin says: Make those in poverty uncomfortable in it. Push them to succeeed. Incentiveise them to work. Do not make a comfortable poverty. America is in a confortable poverty. Where College students are used as homeless statistics. Trailer park residents buy delux satellite service on their 70'HD TV's. And the poor are fat.