>From: James Rogers <jamesr@best.com>
>
>On Mon, 17 Apr 2000, Zero Powers wrote:
> > So what's the answer, peeling off the bandaid and tossing it aside?
> > Granted, a bandaid on a gaping chest wound will not solve the problem.
>But
> > will stepping over the patient and looking the other way do any better?
>
>
>I think the hard part that a lot of people are unwilling to accept is that
>there will be casualties. If you are serious about changing the system,
>there *will* be a fraction of the population that won't make the cut for
>social triage.
>
>The situation is complicated in that the bandaid is often responsible
>in part for the injury inflicted. What is the point of creating the
>bandaid if one is still willing to inflict the injury in the first place?
>Part of the problem is that this issue is often presented at as a "bandaid
>or no bandaid" decision by politicians rather than a "prevention or cure"
>issue, largely because politicians with bandaids are viewed as "solutions"
>rather than as being part of the problem. Real solutions would require
>tacit admissions by politicians and the government to a lot of things they
>would rather not admit to. And being in positions of power, they don't,
>which is why we have lots of bandaids and no real solutions.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no big fan of the welfare state. I work hard for my
living 5 (sometimes 6, sometimes 7) days a week. I'm certainly not looking
for big brother to give me or my family any handouts and I would probably
benefit as much as anybody else from a nice fat tax cut. But I think there
is a middle road between the ad infinitum welfare state and the immediate
end of the dole (which is what would lead to the "casualties" you seem to so
easily dismiss).
I think its obvious that there needs to be a nice plump carrot, as well as a
nice thick stick. Telling people that "the good ol' welfare days are over,
see ya later and rotsa ruck" is just going to create a huge drain on society
that will be good for nobody. I for one am not going to sit still and watch
American kids starving in the streets.
You want to end welfare? OK, so do I. But you have to give people the
means with which to make their own way in the world. If I'm ignorant, poor,
uneducated and unskilled and you kick me and my kids out into the streets to
starve, you have de facto turned me into a criminal. I will rob everyone in
sight. I will soon be caught and put in jail then, guess what? Free room
and board on your dime again. Nice solution.
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