Dump welfare bureaucrats, help your own neighbor

PhilanthropyDaily.com ^ | 06/19/2011 | Scott Walter

[Edmunds mom]

Richard Cornuelle coined the term “independent sector,” yet when he died on April 26, he was largely forgotten by that very sector. Better evidence of what’s wrong with the sector — and America in general – is hard to find.

Cornuelle believed that ordinary people in ordinary places should have a large scope for action, whether they are raising their families, building their businesses, running local governments, or coming to the aid of their neighbors. The threat to such local independence comes from the “scientific,” centralized bureaucracies that from mid-twentieth century onward have grown ever more powerful – in government, businesses, unions, schools, and even charities and philanthropies.

[Edmunds mom]

This wise man spent his life fighting against bureaucracy wherever he found it, because he knew real charity comes when neighbor helps neighbor. Not when activists whine to government for more spending.

[BipolarBob]

Time was when neighbor helped neighbor. Because you never knew when you might need it. Churches helped those in need. That was their mission. People prayed. Gave thanks. And feared God. Now the government has taken God out of the classroom. Christians are ridiculed on TV. The government thinks it is God. The stronger the government got, the weaker our faith got. And that's how we got here.

[1010RD]

Never heard of him. Thanks for posting. We need more like him in every community.

School vouchers.

[SkyDancer]

Whatever happened to “The Great Society” and the “War On Poverty” the Democrats pushed in the 1960’s?? Johnson cracked open the Social Security trust to do that.

[Little Ray]

I remember a cartoon about Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” Shows a hillbilly with a muzzle loader hiding behind some debris saying “Well they sure as heck will know they was in a fight!”

These days, I figure Poverty kicked our ass.

[eyedigress]

I help when I can. One caveat does exist. The individual should be as active as they can be to help themselves.

[banjo joe]

Time was when neighbor helped neighbor.

That was before we had multi-generational welfare recipients. It's now a career choice.

[Kickass Conservative]

The Safety Net has become a Lounge Chair...

The rest of us suckers just serve the food and drinks.

[Bob]

Whatever happened to “The Great Society” and the “War On Poverty” the Democrats pushed in the 1960’s??

Turns out “The Great Society” wasn't so great after all. Poverty won the war.

[raygun]

According to Dictionary.com:

charity
[char-i-tee]

–noun, plural -ties.

1. generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless: to devote one's life to charity.
2. something given to a person or persons in need; alms: She asked for work, not charity.
3. a charitable act or work.
4. a charitable fund, foundation, or institution: He left his estate to a charity.
5. benevolent feeling, especially toward those in need or in disfavor: She looked so poor that we fed her out of charity.
6. leniency in judging others; forbearance: She was inclined to view our selfish behavior with charity.
7. Christian love; agape.

In Christian theology charity, or love (agapē), means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others, i.e., complete and unfettered altruism. Lazarus Long says to root out the self-deception in such and if none can be found wallow in it

Bastiat says this of government enforced "charity":

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.