Charity Vrs. Welfare

Now would be a good time to discuss the how wonderful charity is, and how damaging welfare can be if mismanaged. Before you write this posting off as anti-welfare I want you to know that I do believe it has it's place, but also that it is much smaller than the role it currrently serves. I will post my thoughts on how to build a better, cheaper welfare system that actually helps people escape poverty rather trapping them in it later.

Charity is a wonderful thing. As an evangelical Christian I believe the fortunate are called to help the less fortunate. Jesus Christ himself said we should care for the poor, the sick, the eldrly, widows, and orphans. So I consider it my most pleasurable God-given duty to give generously to those in need. It is right to buy a meal for a beggar, or to give him clothing, or a warm blanket. It is right to give money to a good charity to help people who need help. It is right to take a scared young pregnant girl whose parents have kicked her out for getting pregnant into your home for her own safety and health as well as her unborn child's. Personal charity has direct and often lasting effects on those who recieve it, and it should be given freely by all. We are almost all blessed enough to give here in America.

Welfare on the other hand, at least the way it is currently being used sems to promote broken families, fatherless children, and a continuing chain of poverty. It's one thin for the government to step in with financial aid when, say, a housewife with five children loses her husband in a horrible accident, he wasn't insured, she has no job skills, and daycare would cost more than she could make anyway. She will need some very specific, possibly long-term help to keep her family fed, sheltered, and clothed. I am happy to have some of my tax dollars go to such a cause. But an able-bodied person who can work but chooses not to should not be paid to be an unproductive member of society. Those who can work should work, those who can't deserve care! And the impersonal manner in which it is given, and the expectation of getting it is wrong too. One final sin of the welfare system is that so much money is wated in failed oversights, a bloated beaurocracy, and the list goes on. Welfare doesn't need reform, it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up into an entirely new entity.

Tax dollars paying people to be lazy is not charity, and it is not a noble cause. The billions going into hurricaine relief right now, that's charity. The private donations to charitable organizations is charit. Personal action to help other people is the noblest form of charity. The difference isn't just where the money, goods, or time goes, it's also the personal touch, the private sacrifice willingly made that changes the spirit of what is given from entitlement to charity that seeks to make charitible contributions go farther and work better than welfare systems.

Truth be told, if I wasn't such a softie I would be calling for the eradication of welfare entirely, but my charitible nature sees that it can be used as an instrument for good, for true charty if it is used right. Besides, as I already said, I love charity. It is one of the ways we can show love for complete strangers as well as people we know. So do your part, when you see a need and you can fill it then do so. It is individuals doing the right thing together that changes the world for the better.