Abolish the “War on Poverty”? So says one Benjamin Franklin…

by Mar 20, 2014Christian Discipleship, Financial, welfare, Worldview Wars

What is the best way to handle the poor among us? Here is some solid insight into the proper way to handle the social issue. Seems there were troubles with caring for the poor among the American founders days.

“In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries that the more the public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer.  And, on the contrary, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.  There is no country in the world where so many provision are established for them (as in England); so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many almshouses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor.  Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful?  And do they use their best endeavors to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burden?  On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent.  The day you passed that, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, but giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness.”

“In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase in poverty.  Repeal that law, and you will soon see a change in their manners.  Saint Monday and Saint Tuesday will soon cease to be holidays.  Six days shalt thou labor, thought one on the oldest commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves than could be done by dividing all your estates among them.”

[The Real Benjamin Franklin: Part II: Timeless Treasures from Benjamin Franklin, Prepared by W. Cleon Skousen and M. Richard Maxfield.  National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2008, Pp 453-4.]
Read more at http://lastresistance.com/5110/welfare-recipient-buys-lobster-food-stamps-refuses-80000-year-job-offer/#lpQtkEYwDFcEWGTb.99

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