Reply #40: I see charity and public policy as different things.

[lumberjack_jeff]

I don't want the government telling me what I can do either, but if I am accepted for a Pell grant, I'd better stick by my promise to use that money for education. The fiddler calls the tune. They're giving me a pell grant because it is in society's interest to have an educated citizenry - not because it's fair or I'm a nice guy.

I see food aid for the needy in the same way. It is in society's interest to have a citizenry who do not suffer from malnutrition.

Also, I don't see the primary purpose of welfare programs in general as cash for the poor, or minimize suffering, or dignity or other similar personal virtues. I see those programs as part of a holistic concept of public policy - of trying to create the best possible and most just society. Is the next generation better served by providing guidance to recipients on how to spend the resources they have been granted? In my view, yes.

That twinkie was purchased at the expense of something else. It is demonstrable that significant public health harm has come from using it as a replacement for real food. The root cause of that poor choice and the solution is an unanswered question.

The Republican solution to this problem is to say that welfare is necessarily and inherently counterproductive. The liberal solution to this problem is split. Some feel that more money without restriction is the solution, I think that providing better guidance to how it is spent is appropriate.

"How dare we take them by the hand and treat them like mommy and daddy?" In many cases, they had no mommy and daddy teaching them appropriate life skills. How are they going to impart the skills they lack onto their own children? I know that this sounds paternalistic, and I have to concede that to some degree it is. Nevertheless, I want my own kids to be independent, but until they have the skills to do so, I attach strings. At some point, they will become frustrated by the restrictions to seek independence in their own right.

"When you live in your own house and have your own money, you can eat all the damn twinkies you want." Sound familiar? ;-)

I don't want to get all Clintonian, but I think that they have something of a point about dependence.

Thank you for your rant, I appreciate it. :hi: