The welfare state reduces a citizen to a client, subordinates them to a bureaucrat, and subjects them to rules that are anti-work, anti-family, anti-opportunity and anti-property. Humans forced to suffer under such anti-human rules naturally develop pathologies. The evening news is the natural result of the welfare state.
(02-04-2018, 08:11 AM)nom Wrote: [ -> ]The welfare state reduces a citizen to a client, subordinates them to a bureaucrat, and subjects them to rules that are anti-work, anti-family, anti-opportunity and anti-property. Humans forced to suffer under such anti-human rules naturally develop pathologies. The evening news is the natural result of the welfare state.
There is no dignity in hunger. Any dealing with the government makes one a client, so we had better be careful about the government that we choose through elections. Hungry workers are not good workers, and childhood malnutrition is bad for the learning that children need for becoming competent adults who can hold onto productive jobs. Anyone who thinks that hunger is valuable because it makes people willing to take a jo0b -- any job -- just to survive demonstrates the worst human trait of all: cruelty.
I suggest that you watch the CBS Reports feature
Hunger in America from fifty years ago that The Wonkette offered as a link. Yes, it is tough viewing, but it will do you much more good than watching the Super Bowl. You might develop something precious: a soul. OK, it's fine to watch both. But make sure to watch Hunger in America at least as long as necessary to disabuse yourself of your contempt for the poor.
Hungry people are not desirable customers for any normal business. You can trust that entities like Safeway, Wal*Mart, and Kroger prefer food aid (which is profitable for them) to shoplifting. You can also expect that food processors from Armour-Swift-Eckrich to Del Monte to Pepsico prefer that people buy their wares instead of going hungry. Maybe food aid creates jobs indirectly, and makes people able to fill jobs in places that sell or process food.
If it takes big government expenditures to give kids a chance, then it is well worth it. Note well that Mexican-Americans in the San Antonio area are doing far better, at least statistically, than they were doing fifty years ago. America has a fast-growing Hispanic middle class, some of it including some of the children depicted in the first section of the video. That is about when the Great Society programs started improving the lives of poor children, and people with trust that institutions can serve them are more likely to become good and productive workers than are kids born to be broken who remain broken.