@calvinhobbesliker:
The government is there to administer the money so that donations made in California can get to Louisiana.
Or rather into a bureaucrat’s pocket.
@calvinhobbesliker:
Some people can’t fix the situation; i.e. they can’t get a job no matter how hard they try. They don’t just sit around doing nothing.
As much as I think they should find something better to do, even the people that beg at street corners are doing something. And they seem to be getting by. Many people say can’t when they are really just too proud to take a minimum-wage job. I have worked one - it is not fun, but you got to do what you got to do.
@calvinhobbesliker:
Let me ask you: how does a poor person solve his illness if he can’t afford health care?
There are people that have diseases that they cannot get cured, not because there is no cure, but because the procedure costs ridiculously too much. If the government were to pay to get everyone out of their wheelchairs everyone would go broke (or more accurately, the government would collapse from debt) I think there are expensive treatments to spinal issues that the average person cannot afford. Where do we draw the line? Right at the start. People can get inexpensive drugs at places like Wal-mart and Costco. Even if they couldn’t get everything they needed, it still wouldn’t help for the government to get into health care. History (and Europe) has shown us that the more the government gives away health care, the less the people get. Take England for example. Even for time-urgent procedures, people often have to wait in 6 month waiting lists (or even waiting lists to get on the waiting list - yes, I’m serious). This can result in loss of limb use, extended severe pain, and even possibly death. Why does this happen? Because the people demanded that the government pay for their health care so the doctors are all busy with people that do not really need to go to the doctor.
@calvinhobbesliker:
Also, you say private individuals SHOULD be giving help. I completely agree with that. Unfortunately, they don’t and thus we have to force them to do so.
Who are you to determine that it should be someone else’s money to solve poverty rather than your own? Even were welfare a good thing, supporting it is a waste of time and money. You would do better to rally people to donate to help the poor than to rally people to vote to get the government to take from others to give to the poor. Your one voice and your actions giving and working to help the poor will do more than your one voice supporting welfare. When it comes down to it, supporting welfare is not all that compassionate as is portrayed. It is really just another form of selfishness. If the over 50% of people that support welfare were instead to actually do something to help the poor, we would have no “need” for welfare. However, they would rather force others to “help” the poor and use the government as their excuse for not doing anything much like Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” -
“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,” said the gentleman, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”
“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.
“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”
“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”
“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.
“Both very busy, sir.”
“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”
“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”
“Nothing!” replied Scrooge.
“You wish to be anonymous?”
“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”
“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”
“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. … It’s enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people’s. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!”
Welfare is just an excuse for people not to help the poor. It is merely a way to ease people’s conscience so they won’t feel bad about the people starving around them. Your signature says, “while they prate of economic laws, men and women are starving.” But I say to you, while you prate about welfare being the answer, men and women are starving. What are you doing to help them?