So we should let poor people starve or freeze to death? Should we have a death cart that goes around and picks up the dead in the morning like India used to? with your attitude towards the poor, I have no idea why you volunteer anywhere. I have worked with the poor and found them to be good and bad. Also, in this economy, the people turned out in the street could be you and your family. As a civilized nation, we have a responsibility to the poor.
“So we should let poor people starve or freeze to death? Should we have a death cart that goes around and picks up the dead in the morning like India used to? with your attitude towards the poor, I have no idea why you volunteer anywhere.”
Nice personal attack. I was raised poor and no one gave us anything. Of course that was before the rise of the coercive nanny state. I’ve given thousands in charity and even helped build houses for those who were less fortunate but I’m tired of forced charity.
And no, I don’t want anyone to starve or freeze to death. I have yet to see a starving person in this country.
You’re rhetoric suggests that you are pretty much a liberal who doesn’t believe in personal responsibility but instead in the welfare state.
C'mon, now. Your assertion is a burlesque of what dlj wrote.
Of course, as a civilization, we have responsibility to (not for) the poor. Your words.
We have a responsibility to help those who cannot help themselves.
We have a responsibility to provide opportunity for those who can help themselves.
And we have a responsibility not to enable those who would prefer to be helped by others, rather than do anything to help themselves.
You might call this social triage.
To date, we have spent over $5 trillion dollars over four decades on "the poor". These expenditures have failed to move the dial on the percent of Americans "living in poverty". It remains around 14% today -- essentially unchanged since 1965. Indeed, unchanged since de Tocqueville observed the same percentage (1 in 7) in colonial America.
The only times that have seen a decline in the percentage of Americans in poverty since 1965 were a.) after the Reagan tax cuts and b.) after the Bush tax cuts.
That should tell us something.
No conservative would object to government (or charitable) assistance to two legs of the social triage. But we should all object to those who form the third leg: they are poor, because they wish to be. They neither deserve, nor appreciate, our help. Indeed, we (nor government programs) aren't helping them at all, only enabling them.
Charity needn't -- indeed, shouldn't be -- indiscriminate.
>>As a civilized nation, we have a responsibility to the poor.<<
Absolutely!
But not via government redistribution of wealth. The Biblical example is each individual giving of his own free will. You take that part away and you just have Animal Farm.