Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to If charity worked so well, why has the government had to get involved?

An excellent question!
Tom Brosz — (archived)

<There was private charity before welfare, food stamps and medicaid. If it had worked so well, there would have been no pressure for government involvement.

You are making a highly erroneous assumption that the only motivation the government had for entering the charitable field is because the alternative did not work.

I am fascinated that many people who are razor sharp at spotting ulterior motives in the private sector ("Oh, yeah? I know EXACTLY why those bastards at the oil company spent money to save those burrowing owls. HAH!") seem to have a huge blind spot when dealing with ulterior political motives.

Government charity translates almost directly into political power. Not money. Power. 1.2 trillion dollars flowing directly into entitlements--which face it, is charity--is raw, screaming political power at the fusion reactor level. In the field of politics, who controls the largesse controls the recipient. There is no political power for the central government to be had in ANY private solutions to poverty, medical care, education, or any other human need.

Good Lord, the Democratic Party isn't even subtle about it any more. In ANY election the first thing they do is hold up a match to a Social Security check in front of some quavering old person. "Vote Republican, and up it goes. Are ya feeling lucky?"

If they can get a grip on the provision of medical care for EVERY citizen--their current priority--well, just thinking about it makes them drool. And gives me hives.

Please remember that, for the bulk of human history, "charity" was distributed in civilized lands by the representatives of the established religion of the region. Contributions to these religions were not voluntary, either. Would you like to return to tithing?

Been a very long time since we had an "established religion," but churches and others did okay. I would have liked to see how purely private charity would have worked in a modern nation where human need is just a TV camera away, but there it is.

As far as tithing, when I am forced at gunpoint to join the Latter Day Saints, we'll talk.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (72 posts)