The Maelstrom of Violence

[Bob Butler 54]

(10-02-2017, 01:59 PM)David Horn Wrote: I left your response intact, though it misses a major point.  The plural of anecdote is not data.  Anecdotes are always self selected to make a point, but the point may be lost in making it. 

Welfare rarely works the way either side thinks it does, because the economy is not a morality play.  It's a numbers game.  Welfare works best where it provides benefits to the community in general.  It tends to fail when it doesn't.  Cultures that harbor resentment tend to see it as a morality play, so the likelihood that a general benefit is achieved is very low.  If the society tends to be less judgmental, then benefits tend to be greater.

Appalachia is uniformly poor with a culture high on resentment.  Welfare has done poorly there.  Yet poor areas in Greece, for example, see net gains since resentment is low. 

It's the hardest obstacle to overcome, since changing culture is nearly impossible from the outside, and rarely popular from the inside.

That's an interesting perspective, but people who need help still need help, and those resentful will just resent something else.  I'm from a blue place where the community seems helped overall.  I can see how you'd get greed and manipulation sometimes.  Resentment?  At what point does one refuse to feed the mouth that bites you?