From: "Zero Powers" <zero_powers@hotmail.com>
>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.
The problem with medicine is that even when it's good for you, it
tastes lousy. In fact the better the medicine, the worse the taste.
Welfare was a well meaning attempt to correct a problem, but we
created an even worse problem with the solution.
Welfare wasn't cut off immediately, they gave a 2 year notice.
There are job programs, and other kinds of assistance, but lets
admit it, it's going to be a tough road, as it should be.
Handout days are over.
Thomas Stanley points out in "The Millionaire Next Door" that this
exact same phenomenon occurs among the wealthy when they give
handouts to their own descendants. Those who receive "Economic
Outpatient Care" from their elders earn less then their
professional peers (even doctors and lawyers), and have a much
lower net worth.
People are responsible for their own selves and their children. It
may sound harsh, but here it is: people shouldn't have children
they can't afford, and these days children are very expensive.
I don't intend to let children starve either, but their parents
(yes PARENTS, every child starts out with two.) will have to
struggle extremely hard for every nickel they get from me. They
will find it much easier (and rewarding) to get a job.
Brian
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