Government handouts do more damage than good
Mark Green
Issue date: 3/16/10 Section: Opinion
I am adamant in my opposition to government handouts, and this often leads to people assuming that I am a greedy, cold-hearted villain who doesn't care about my fellow human beings. This is nonsense.
This misconception is not unique to me; It is a problem many conservatives face on a regular basis. There are millions of people in this country who believe welfare and other entitlement programs are the only way to ease the suffering of the poor, and a vote against these programs is an indicator of a person's greed and malice.
I oppose entitlement spending for a reason that has nothing to do with developing a personal Ebenezer Scrooge complex. My reason is this: Entitlement programs are a disservice to their recipients.
Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay in 1776 called "On the price of corn and management of the poor." The full text can be read at http://www.founding.com/founders_library/pageID.214-6/default.asp. During the essay Franklin delivered one of the greatest arguments ever written against welfare.
He said: "I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it…. the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
Franklin's point was that when you make people comfortable on welfare, then you eliminate their incentive to work and better their situation.
When I was 17 I visited an American Indian reservation in Arizona with a church group for a service project, and I saw first hand the truth of Franklin's statement. I remember one of the older women telling us one of the problems they faced as a community was an unwillingness by many to go to work. She explained that the government would send any adult on that reservation $400 a month as long as he or she stayed on the reservation.
This misconception is not unique to me; It is a problem many conservatives face on a regular basis. There are millions of people in this country who believe welfare and other entitlement programs are the only way to ease the suffering of the poor, and a vote against these programs is an indicator of a person's greed and malice.
I oppose entitlement spending for a reason that has nothing to do with developing a personal Ebenezer Scrooge complex. My reason is this: Entitlement programs are a disservice to their recipients.
Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay in 1776 called "On the price of corn and management of the poor." The full text can be read at http://www.founding.com/founders_library/pageID.214-6/default.asp. During the essay Franklin delivered one of the greatest arguments ever written against welfare.
He said: "I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it…. the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."
Franklin's point was that when you make people comfortable on welfare, then you eliminate their incentive to work and better their situation.
When I was 17 I visited an American Indian reservation in Arizona with a church group for a service project, and I saw first hand the truth of Franklin's statement. I remember one of the older women telling us one of the problems they faced as a community was an unwillingness by many to go to work. She explained that the government would send any adult on that reservation $400 a month as long as he or she stayed on the reservation.
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A.b.C.
posted 4/11/10 @ 1:29 AM MST
libertarian is longhand for lunatic
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