Everybody should see this, nearly nobody will. So it goes.
There will always be poverty but part of our problem is the definition of modern poverty. Today I think i means not having the latest toy from Apple.
LBJ: pass The Great Society and the Democrats will have the ni**er vote locked up for 50 years. His was a conservative estimate.
Succoring the poor is incumbent upon any Christian society. Trying to abolish poverty is a fool's errand, as Our Lord told us. And, succoring the poor out of tax revenues is harmful, as one of Christ's more notable followers in the fifth century observed:
“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again.
Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold from the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people’s hearts first—and then they will joyfully share their wealth.”
-– St. John Chrysostom on the poor from On Living Simply XLIII
There is a theory about dealing with part of chronic poverty with what’s called a “technology step-back plan”.
It’s based on the idea that some of the people caught up in poverty just cannot handle information-age technology and society. In a manner of speaking they are befuddled by the speed of the world around them, and need a simpler, slower place. Their brains just cannot handle modern times in its complexity.
The idea is that they need a rural settlement. Oddly enough, this would involve a lot more physical work on their part. But for people in this psychological situation, this is acceptable. Importantly, once set up there, they need minimal support, so the idea is much more cost effective.
Instead of dealing mostly in money, they do a lot more trading with each other, and with those who bring in supplies they can’t make themselves.
It isn’t primitive, more like a 1930s and 1940s small town, with information in a carefully stocked library and a weekly newspaper.
Children are something of a problem, since they need a modern education, and the majority of them are likely capable and interested in living at a faster pace.
But for their parents, who right now lead miserable lives that cost society a fortune, this may be a way to lead a more normal life, living at a pace more suitable to their wiring.
This is what I’ve been saying forever.
The people high up running these groups never want whatever they’re fighting to really end. It’s their business.
There are groups like this on the left and right. Each employ naive true believers at the lower levels for plausible deniability. The leftist groups secretly make lots of money but because they think they are smarter and care more than everyone else they deserve it. The groups on the right that do this, mostly unscrupulous businesses, make lots of money but they think they’re doing a favor to the customers they’re screwing over, they deserve it, too.
The USA “poverty line” is 20x the world median income.
The biggest health problem of our poor is obesity.
Poverty is, in effect, illegal: between minimum wage and welfare, there is no legal excuse to live in real poverty - and to do so risks a host of legal violations.
Simple matter: one must create more value than one consumes, else one becomes destitute.
Those who create more wealth than they consume sell the surplus, and thus attract money.
Those who create less wealth than they consume buy the difference, and thus run out of money.
You can’t plug a leak by pouring more water into it.
That picture depicts real poverty.
The solution is a ticket to somewhere else.
On his Thursday broadcast, he made me fall off my chair when he responded to an email that said, plainly, that nowhere in the constitution is the federal government empowered to provide unlimited welfare (or any welfare for that matter.)
His response?
He conflated the 18th century word "welfare," (general well being) with the current synonym for "charity!"
The last time I saw that assertion was when a fruitloop Amish woman was touring the country making the same argument. She was quickly laughed off the national public stage.
Was there national required charity established in the late 1700s?
Was there a food stamp program?
Aid to dependent children as a national obligation to all citizens?
Free mail for the poor?
Free food?
Free housing?
Free entertainment?
If it was a real part of the Constitutional enumerated powers why did it not exist for over 100 years afterwards?
Remember, the federal income tax did not sneak into the national consciousmess until 120 years later, and there was no mention whatsoever of mandatory national charity during Congressional debates prior to its adoption.
If an idiot with an Ivy League education can't grasp the obvious, what can we expect from the parasites who are 90% of Hussein's electorate?
Mind-boggling does not begin to describe it.
We need poverty so we can either appreciate or be embarassed about how well we are doing (we wouldn’t appreciate the sun if it weren’t for the clouds). The poverty level now is akin to middle class in the ‘50s because the Left needs high poverty levels to pull of the class warfare thing.
As Jesus pointed out, there will be no end to poverty, until He makes an end of it. He also pointed out that individuals have a duty to render alms to the least of us, as those who live in poverty are. But that is the Almighty’s commandment to individuals- not governments.
Poverty has a parallel in racism, as indicated by these words of wisdom:
“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well.” - Booker T. Washington
If the poverty pimps cure the condition, they are out of a job.