Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to An excellent question!

Re: "churches and others did okay"
Mary Anne — (archived)

The depth of ignorance of history in this country amazes me.

Why do you think we have no established religion in this country? It's not because the Founders were against God, as conservatives are fond of pointing out. Let's go the next step and explain why: It's because established religion wields a huge economic stick as well as an ideological (a word the Founders were not acquainted with) one. Churches in the colonies could, and did, collect money with the force of law. The stocks and debtors' prison are not so far in the past, but apparently we don't seem to find the need to remember them.

The history of public assistance run by government agencies is short indeed in the United States. The history of the United States is also short indeed. Churches were an arm of government even here, until the First put an end to that.

There is a reason government stepped in in the 1930s. Think about Hooverville for just a little bit. Think about Hitler. Think about the very real Communist threat, far more real in American streets than it ever was in the 1950s. Think about the labor wars that had been going on for the previous 60 years: the Haymarket Riots were just the most famous battle in that war. Now tell me the nation could not have fallen if the government were to be seen as doing nothing to help the nation.

People like to think everyone then was like Henry Fonda in "The Grapes of Wrath": unhappy, but basically healthy and handsome. People like to think it couldn't have happened here. People are wrong.

If we want to put an end to public assistance, we can vote to stop accepting it. If we who need it less can bring ourselves to refuse to take government money, there will be a lot less collected, and what is collected can be allocated to people who really truly need it. That's an example worth setting.

And another thing: do you really, really think that only people who grovel sufficiently ought to be allowed to be cared for? Or did I read you wrong up there? Gratitude has to be learned before it can be given. Things like that can only be learned by example.

Regards--
Mary Anne

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