So, your of the "let 'em die" school? Darwinian capitalism?
Odd as it may seem, growing up poor, but self sufficient, in America doesn't kill you. There is nothing morally wrong with it and it builds character. Have you never been completely broke before? I have been numerous times in my life and I can tell you in doesn't come with a death sentence in America.
Growing up, I lost more middle class, wealthy friends than poor friends to drunken driving and drugs. Now I'm losing more to the ravages of too much then too little, from heart disease and stroke. People make bad choices no matter what economic level they are born into. Some of the most successful people I know came from extremely modest backgrounds and have lead exemplary lives. They all have one thing in common, they chose to support themselves at an early age, they took responsibility for themselves.
People also make choices to live outside of society because it holds more freedom for them. Just look at how much fun you are having living the life of a bum who doesn't work. Do you miss the 9-5 grind, the idiot bosses, the pressure of making a mortgage payment, rush hour traffic and all the crap that comes with living a straight life? I knew lots of people who lived out on the street when I was a teenager and they chose to live there, they thought the straight middle class life was boring as hell.
The other mistake you make is you think these various programs actually work to keep people alive. Drug use and the death rate for teenagers and children has grown right along with the programs. If you look at the explosion of crime and expansion of blight stricken neighborhoods in this country it parallels the growth of social programs. The Great Society programs created a whole underclass of people who are completely dependent on these programs. Once you are in them it is extremely hard to get out of them. Kids grow up in homes where no one works and no one can show them how to get a job. You learn how to get a job from either your parents or some other significant adult.
The worst possible thing is to grow up in a home where the only income is some sort of government charity. It is demoralizing. You'd know this if you grew up in the situations I did. The only time I get an argument about this it is from somebody who grew up in a middle class home and is convinced that poor people aren't capable of taking care of themselves without the government's help or from people who are still living on the government tit because they themselves are convinced they aren't capable or are somehow entitled by reason of [fill in the blank]. The underlying assumption is that these people need your help because they are inherently inferior to you. It makes you feel good to "help" them, it alleviates some of the guilt for having been born into more lucky circumstances. You never ask the basic question which is: does your help actually help?
Back when the Rodney King riots were going on out in CA I got calls from people I know in CA. They were worried about me because they knew I was living in a city that was predominantly African American. They were surprised when I told them that all there was were some racially mixed protestors in front of the court house, that we didn't have any riots. I said, "Well, we happen to have a whole city of middle class and working class people who have jobs, mortgages and car payments to make just like you and me. It's difficult to go out and riot when you have to go to work the next day. You are more apt to write an angry letter." One of the greatest things in living here for the last thirty years is that I got to be here when this fundamental change came over the city, I got to see an entire generation that had previously been shut out move into the mainstream. I got to see the high rise ghettos blown up and torn down. These people weren't successful because of social programs, they shunned the social programs and they moved into the middle class the same way I did. They stayed in school and then they went out and got a freakin low wage shit job, worked their way up to a better one and then a better one after that. Is this a great country or what!?
Capitalism works far better than any other alternative, it is neither kind or unkind any more than life is. |
