TIGERassault wrote:It's also a very greedy approach, to think that it's their problem and they should sort it out themselves. As I said, most of the time the problem wasn't their fault.
I wouldn't go so far as to say "most" of the time, but I would admit "much" of the time.
Which is beside the point. The problem is that, regardless of the cause, when the GOVERNMENT tries to fix poverty, it almost inevitably makes things worse.
Not to mention the ethical issue of "who do I take money from, by force, to give it to the poor?" And "Who are the poor?"
Example: Shortly after I got married, I was working at a low wage job. It was paying above minimum wage, but not WAY above it. I WANTED a snazzy programming job, but the economy was bad, and the oil bust had just flooded the job market, and so I settled for what I could get because I wanted to support myself and my wife.
So, I'm earning a pittance, and My wife was in school full time and had no significant income. Making ends meet was a struggle each month, but we were pulling it off with a lot of self sacrifice and hard work.
Some time later, I'm still in the same job (earning a bit more now, but still not a lot), and we went to visit some friends. The topic of unemployment insurance came up because my friend was out of work. His unemployment insurance had paid for the contracted period, and he was still out of work. The government decided to EXTEND his unemployment insurance beyond the contracted period. TWICE. At taxpayers expense.
My friend had had a very nice job, and lived in a big house, drove a nice car, etc. There WERE jobs available, but none making the same salary he had been. Someone suggested that perhaps it wasn't fair for the government to be taking money away from those of us who were working at low paying jobs and giving it to my friend so he wouldn't have to take a low paying job. My friends wife became furious and insisted, "You can NOT expect people to change their standard of living!!!"
Who was poor? My out of work friend? Or the several of us at the party who had "settled" and were supporting our families on a fraction of his income? The governments idea of helping the poor was to take the money from the low wage earners to support the lifestyle of the high wage earner.
I DO support helping the needy. And I put my money where my mouth is, I donate to private charities. Private charities that I have investigated to make certain they are using my money ethically and efficiently. I RESENT the money that the government takes from me by force, waste mostly on unnecessary bureaucracy, and then delivers the tiny amount thats left in ways that do not, in my opinion, help eliminate or alleviate poverty.
The United States of America is SUPPOSED to be about choice. Including the choice of where, when, and how you will choose to donate your hard earned dollars to those less fortunate.
