Hey Mister, can you spare a dime?
This essay previously published 07/07/2003, by me elsewhere on the internet.
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. 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. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that 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.
- Ben Franklin 1766
We hear a lot about the poor and disenfranchised in America today. It appears that the democrat party has a particular burden for America’s poor. In fact, the democrats have had a soft spot for America’s poor beginning with FDR’s administration over sixty years ago with the inception of Social security, the first socialistic entitlement program to be foisted upon the American people and the American poor. For decades the poor have reaped the rewards of their economic status through a multitude of government entitlement programs. I like to call them handout programs. Using entitlement programs the democrats in government have created generational dependence on handout programs and a whole underclass willing to vote more democrats into office in order to preserve the handouts and benefits. With all these promised handouts and entitlements from democrats in exchange for votes, why call America’s poor, poor at all?
When one compares America’s poor with the poor of other nations, it becomes apparent that America’s poor has the highest standard of living of any of this planet’s poor. Being poor in America does not always mean being impoverished. In my line of work I get many opportunities to enter into some of the poorest homes of the poorest neighborhoods in Oakland. There is one thing these homes and their occupants all have in common. They are wealthier than any of the poor belonging to any other nation on Earth.
America’s poor people have many amenities that the poor of other countries do without. Most of our poor have running hot and cold water, heat and electricity, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, washer and sometimes clothes dryer. Most have flushing toilets, color TVs, stereo CD and DVD players, VCRs, food in the fridge, furniture and blankets and a roof over their heads. Many have cars, a school for the kids to go to and medical care at the local clinic or general hospital. Compare that with a family in Afghanistan, India, or even central or south America where crowded shantytowns surround the cities. Shantytowns with homes made of cardboard, black paper, scraps of lumber, and corrugated tin. The only form of light may be the glow of a candle or of a single incandescent light bulb, while meals are cooked on a flat stone over a small indoor fire pit. Open sewers flow through the streets, medical care is rare, disease runs rampant and the lifespan of one of these poor people can be expected to be half that of an American poor person. Let’s not forget that infant mortality is much higher than that of their American counterparts. The poor of other nations have few if any services to call upon for assistance.
Meanwhile back in America, our poor have many outreach and entitlement programs to pick from. There’s welfare, food stamps, government cheese handouts, WIC for babies and young mothers, section eight housing, federal housing assistance, utilities assistance from the phone, gas, electric and water companies. Free garbage pickup, grants and city sponsored loans for automobile purchases and social security benefits even if you are 70 years old and just moved to America from another country. The available benefits and handouts are staggering. The only people we see living in shanty towns (Squatters Camps) or in boxes are the homeless, who more often than not choose to live that way or they are mentally ill or drug addicted and they choose to refuse assistance of any kind.
America is the bread basket of the world. America is seen by the rest of the world as being the land of plenty, especially the poor. So much so, that many would gladly leave their country at great risk to life and limb to seek a life in America. Always, America is the preferred destination by many of the worlds poor and refugees. American’s are a generous people who give more to charities than any other people on earth, and the rest of the world knows that. The outside world sees Americans as being gluttonous, wealthy, lazy, and they see America as being a land of opportunity rather than how poor Americans see their country as, as a land of hopelessness.
We cannot as a nation afford to continue to support those who refuse to contribute to society. Nor, can we continue to pay the way of refugees and the world’s poor. To do so will bankrupt this country,
The poor in America have been conditioned and brainwashed into believing that a certain standard of life is owed them, and that that life can be had with little or no work other than filling out a government form or two, all courtesy of the left in this country. No longer is a handout an embarrassment or damaging to one’s pride. It’s expected and the more one receives from the government, the higher one’s status in his neighborhood. Used to be that a man would do menial labor to feed his family, rather than taking a handout to feed them. Today, that handout is expected.
I place blame on this country’s leftists and democrats who have socially engineered a poor underclass in this country, who’s sole purpose is to cast a vote for a democrat at the expense of any kind of decent future out of poverty.
It gives me pause to wonder if the damage caused by the leftists and democrats to this country can ever be reversed and undone. I believe it can be reversed, but first we need to convince our country’s poor that work is good for the soul and that work and productivity gives a man pride, honor, and a way out of the hopelessness of being poor. Soon, a productive taxpaying citizen will begin to love his country for what it has given him –opportunity. The democrats and leftists will loose that productive citizen from their voter rolls, which scares the hell out of most democrats and leftists –the prospect of a self-sufficient and productive American who has escaped the bonds of poverty and who has escaped the bondage caused by democrat abuse and control.
Copyright 07/07/2003 by Randy Williams. Use granted to all who identify author
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. 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. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that 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.
- Ben Franklin 1766
We hear a lot about the poor and disenfranchised in America today. It appears that the democrat party has a particular burden for America’s poor. In fact, the democrats have had a soft spot for America’s poor beginning with FDR’s administration over sixty years ago with the inception of Social security, the first socialistic entitlement program to be foisted upon the American people and the American poor. For decades the poor have reaped the rewards of their economic status through a multitude of government entitlement programs. I like to call them handout programs. Using entitlement programs the democrats in government have created generational dependence on handout programs and a whole underclass willing to vote more democrats into office in order to preserve the handouts and benefits. With all these promised handouts and entitlements from democrats in exchange for votes, why call America’s poor, poor at all?
When one compares America’s poor with the poor of other nations, it becomes apparent that America’s poor has the highest standard of living of any of this planet’s poor. Being poor in America does not always mean being impoverished. In my line of work I get many opportunities to enter into some of the poorest homes of the poorest neighborhoods in Oakland. There is one thing these homes and their occupants all have in common. They are wealthier than any of the poor belonging to any other nation on Earth.
America’s poor people have many amenities that the poor of other countries do without. Most of our poor have running hot and cold water, heat and electricity, refrigerators, stoves, ovens, washer and sometimes clothes dryer. Most have flushing toilets, color TVs, stereo CD and DVD players, VCRs, food in the fridge, furniture and blankets and a roof over their heads. Many have cars, a school for the kids to go to and medical care at the local clinic or general hospital. Compare that with a family in Afghanistan, India, or even central or south America where crowded shantytowns surround the cities. Shantytowns with homes made of cardboard, black paper, scraps of lumber, and corrugated tin. The only form of light may be the glow of a candle or of a single incandescent light bulb, while meals are cooked on a flat stone over a small indoor fire pit. Open sewers flow through the streets, medical care is rare, disease runs rampant and the lifespan of one of these poor people can be expected to be half that of an American poor person. Let’s not forget that infant mortality is much higher than that of their American counterparts. The poor of other nations have few if any services to call upon for assistance.
Meanwhile back in America, our poor have many outreach and entitlement programs to pick from. There’s welfare, food stamps, government cheese handouts, WIC for babies and young mothers, section eight housing, federal housing assistance, utilities assistance from the phone, gas, electric and water companies. Free garbage pickup, grants and city sponsored loans for automobile purchases and social security benefits even if you are 70 years old and just moved to America from another country. The available benefits and handouts are staggering. The only people we see living in shanty towns (Squatters Camps) or in boxes are the homeless, who more often than not choose to live that way or they are mentally ill or drug addicted and they choose to refuse assistance of any kind.
America is the bread basket of the world. America is seen by the rest of the world as being the land of plenty, especially the poor. So much so, that many would gladly leave their country at great risk to life and limb to seek a life in America. Always, America is the preferred destination by many of the worlds poor and refugees. American’s are a generous people who give more to charities than any other people on earth, and the rest of the world knows that. The outside world sees Americans as being gluttonous, wealthy, lazy, and they see America as being a land of opportunity rather than how poor Americans see their country as, as a land of hopelessness.
We cannot as a nation afford to continue to support those who refuse to contribute to society. Nor, can we continue to pay the way of refugees and the world’s poor. To do so will bankrupt this country,
The poor in America have been conditioned and brainwashed into believing that a certain standard of life is owed them, and that that life can be had with little or no work other than filling out a government form or two, all courtesy of the left in this country. No longer is a handout an embarrassment or damaging to one’s pride. It’s expected and the more one receives from the government, the higher one’s status in his neighborhood. Used to be that a man would do menial labor to feed his family, rather than taking a handout to feed them. Today, that handout is expected.
I place blame on this country’s leftists and democrats who have socially engineered a poor underclass in this country, who’s sole purpose is to cast a vote for a democrat at the expense of any kind of decent future out of poverty.
It gives me pause to wonder if the damage caused by the leftists and democrats to this country can ever be reversed and undone. I believe it can be reversed, but first we need to convince our country’s poor that work is good for the soul and that work and productivity gives a man pride, honor, and a way out of the hopelessness of being poor. Soon, a productive taxpaying citizen will begin to love his country for what it has given him –opportunity. The democrats and leftists will loose that productive citizen from their voter rolls, which scares the hell out of most democrats and leftists –the prospect of a self-sufficient and productive American who has escaped the bonds of poverty and who has escaped the bondage caused by democrat abuse and control.
Copyright 07/07/2003 by Randy Williams. Use granted to all who identify author
posted by Spot at
8:07 PM
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