01-30-2018, 07:55 PM
(01-30-2018, 01:17 PM)David Horn Wrote:(01-30-2018, 04:19 AM)nebraska Wrote: Were there charities before there were food stamps?
Why should the government steal money from Americans at the point of the gun when the private market can provide food aid?
Because charity is limited and targeted. "Desirable people" get help, "undesirable people" don't.
Add to this -- charity is voluntary. The government could ensure that enough money goes to charity were it to mandate tithes... but that would be little different in practice.
Besides, the need for the most pressing sorts of relief, namely food, clothing, and fuel to the poor, intensifies in the bad times when charitable sources themselves get lesser contributions.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.