On Being Mean to the Poor

Petroglyph near Toas, New Mexico - photo by JoAnn Sturman

by Mike Burnaugh

There were not universal cries of glee at my recent statements that we would have both unemployment and poverty as long as we paid people to be either or both. It is of course simple supply and demand. Leftists demand power so they supply goodies to people who agree to be unemployed and poor. I say the only way to fight poverty and unemployment is to make them financially unattractive. I was reading my latest issue of Pat Buchanan’s magazine: The American Conservative, when I came across a review by John Derbyshire of the late philosopher David Stowe’s book What’s Wrong with Benevolence?. It quotes Stowe’s comment on the welfare state:

“We also know that the inherent tendency of the welfare state is to increase
Poverty; that welfare continues every year to absorb a greater proportion of our Nation’s wealth and population,”

There is another factor at work besides the desire for power by leftists: bureaucratic self interest. What organization ever really tries to solve the problem that supplies it with its budget? The Centers for Disease Control? Hardly. They think they should now solve the problem of gun ownership. Social Security disability? No, they deny all claims and then misplace files to drag out the appeals process for people who really are disabled. If they did the obvious, we wouldn’t need so many clerks, would we?

How about the military? We now spend as much as the rest of the world combined on “defense”. Do we have peace? I hear a deafening silence.

I remember when Humphrey and Kennedy battled for the 1960 nomination in West Virginia. It was a contest of promises. It began a dreary and predictable series on all three networks about how we HAD to help Appalachia.That was the genesis of the war on poverty: that and the chaos created in the black community by the minimum wage under Roosevelt. Before Roosevelt, Blacks had the same percentage of two-parent households as white. Because they had a higher proportion of low-paying jobs, they were mauled by the minimum wage. Their jobs were simply eliminated. Families fell apart, helped by more welfare for single moms than married ones. Benevolence strikes again!

So, yes I would be mean to the poor, but only after being meaner to the Government.