Welfare and Charity  

I am not against helping the poor.  I think most people want to help people in need.  What I am against is the failed government welfare system. 

Some of our urban areas are in shambles.  We have enslaved those people to a life of welfare.  We now have third and fourth generations in these areas that have never known any other way of life. 

Drugs, crime and gangs have become a way of life.  Police would like to avoid going into some areas.  We have woman whose only career option is having children to live off the welfare. 

I don’t have any quick solutions, but I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that the present approach is not working.  Throwing more and more money at the present welfare system is not working. 

As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  We have to do something different to help these people. 

Maybe relocating people to an area with jobs is a possible solution.  The huge building projects have turned out to be a disaster and a waste of money.

Maybe education and keeping kids in school somehow is the answer.  Somehow we must give these people a work ethic.  How can they have a work ethic when they have never held a job?  Why would they even consider a job when their parents and grandparents have never held a job?

I was talking to a social worker once when she said most of her clients had no job skills.  I responded that if they just showed up for a job on time, they could be taught how to do a job.  She responded, “That is the job skill I am talking about.  They can’t understand getting out of bed to go to work.”

What have we done to these people?  Maybe we need to start government work programs like President Franklin D. Roosevelt did in the great depression.  Somehow we have to get the poor working and contributing to society. 

I was raised on a farm.  My Dad was a tenant farmer.  We were working late one night when I was in my early teens.  Some people would call a 15-hour day child abuse today.  I was tired and started complaining. 

My Dad stopped me and said, “I don’t have any money. I can’t send you to collage.  I can’t start you farming.  I can’t start you in business.  But, you are smart enough to learn a job if you learn how to work, and I can teach you how to work.”

I didn’t think it was too good a deal at the time, but he was right.  He taught me responsibility and how to work.  We have to teach the poor how to work.  We have to teach people how to work so they don’t need welfare. 

I was a plant manager for a recreational vehicle manufacturing plant once.  If we were hiring new help for the plant, I would always hire the kid raised on the farm over the kid raised in town with other factors being equal.  They farm kid usually knew how to work. 

Helping the poor should not be the responsibility of the Federal government in my opinion.  I don’t think there is any way some bureaucrat in Washington can make smart decisions for the entire country. 

All welfare should be handled at the State, County or local level.  Personally I think it should be handled at the county or local level.

When I was a kid in Iowa, there were “County Poor Farms.”  These were working farms where the poor could go.  They were taken care of, but they were also expected to work in whatever capacity they were able.  They had to get out of bed in the morning.  The system wasn’t perfect, but it worked a lot better than what the Federal government is doing now.  

        Charity should and does play an important role in helping the poor.  We have many great charitable organizations including churches.

        When there is a catastrophic event anywhere in the world, the people of the United States have always opened their hearts and wallets to help.  

        This must remain the decision of the individual.  Some people seem to think all money should be funneled through the Federal Government.  I question the Federal government being involved in welfare at all.  Charity can be much more efficient and generous with less waste than government.

        I was the Chamber of Commerce President once where I lived.  We had a local United Fund that we did not send to the national organization.  We determined where and how we used the money. 

        If someone had a home fire and lost everything, I could give them a check the next morning.  They had nothing and needed money for clothes and essentials immediately.  There was no time to put in a request to some government bureaucrat.

I am not sure what all the solutions are, but I know the present approach of the Federal government has failed.  We need to do something different.