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Entry: The New Hope (Same as the Old Hope) Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_new_hope_same_as_the_old_hope#23782 Post contents: Welfare in principle is not the worst thing. Some people are incompetent or tragically unlucky, and third parties (like kids) are often affected by bad decisions they can't control. But welfare, to work, needs to be painful, needs to be managed by people that know the deserving poor as distinguished from n'er do wells, and ideally should come with controls to prevent substance and alcohol abuse and other factors that usually go along with poverty. A small community will look out for its own, and people will be appropriately grateful for the help and willing to work to balance the scales. Witness, for example, the barter economy of the New Deal when most men were too proud to take handouts, but would take inflated wages for make work jobs from their neighbors. Contrast this ethic of brother helping brother with the black-and-white politics of Obama, where his Reverend identifies the enemy for poor blacks as "rich, white people." Obama believes this; he just wants poor whites to see rich white people as the enemy too. The lack of restraint and self-limitation of a nationwide campaign for redistribution from one race to another, when the richer race is labeled evil and oppressive, is remarkable when compared to the old county welfare board alternative. Capitalism has some undeserving losers, and private charity and local welfare can alleviate these things. As the author rightly notes, the alternative focusing on perfect efficiency leads to exploding dependency and, in turn, exploding savagery. Sent at: 2008 07 06