Poverty! It has been about 50 years since Lyndon Johnson started his War on Poverty, and the portion of the federal budget devoted to that war has increased since, and the number of those in poverty has tracked the "investment" dollar for dollar! Perhaps it is time (past time, in my view) to rethink what works. The federal approach is a top-down philosophy. It reflects the belief of many that the correct remedy for a problem is for society to use its collective power to take care of a problem. There is another view, one not so popular but one that has stood the test of time; personal responsibility! I know so many who have risen from poverty to self-reliance by stint of hard work, determination, planning, and appropriate action. I have seen this work first hand in numerous cases, most closely in my own family. I was lucky, born to those who had already achieved a moderately comfortable lifestyle, but my wife was not. She recognized her situation early in life, and made her own determination to improve her status. Over the years she got college education and advanced degrees that enabled her to get work in fields in which she was well paid, acknowledged, and excelled! But she made her own way. Instead of our taking care of all with our artificial concepts of reality, perhaps it is now time to re-evaluate our approach, to recognize that those who have large high-definition TVs, air conditioning, proper housing, personal transportation, cell phones, etc., also have a responsibility to bear part of the costs for such existence. What we do now is not "a hand up", it is indeed a hand out with NO strings attached!
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:30:35 +0000
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