Originally posted by: BrownTown
A big part of this goes back to the old saying "give a man a fish feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and feed him for the rest of his life". When a Republican sees all these welfare programs it seems like you are just "giving away the fish" and essentially creating an underclass of people who contribute nothing to society and are like a leach to the rest of us. Many Republicans would say that by not giving these people handouts we are making them learn how to take care of themselves and be productive human beings and that only the mentally challenged or otherwise handicapped people should be given handouts not just lazy people.
I'd agree with most of what you said. To me whats cruel is to just give someone a fish, then expect them to be back tomorrow hungry. Sometimes its necessary to force someone into a position to fend for themselves so they can be taught basic responsibility even if they like it or not. Is it a lack of empathy or is it doing what should be done? To me, giving out welfare to poor people and patting them on the had "its ok, we'll feed you" is no different than how people treat animals. To me, thats not empathy, its patronizing.
Its not really any different than raising a 4 year old boy. Sometimes his toys are all over the house. If you tell him to clean up his toys, what do you do if he throws a temper tantrum? Go and pick them up for him so he doesn't learn responsibility just so you have a clean house because its the easiest and nicest thing you can do? Or do you kick his ass, and make him pick up his toys anyways, because you know he needs to learn these basic human responsibilities? Which kid will be better prepared when they turn 18, the kid from family "nice" or family "kick their ass"?
The government isn't there to be your best friend, its supposed to be there incase you need it so you don't starve, but you should expect an ass kicking in the process if its your own damn fault.
Its my opinion welfare and social services should be like a 0% loan which everybody is approved for. You have hard times, need $40,000 to get through the next few years? Cool, here you go. You still have to pay it back or face jail time. So you better go find a job, or go to school, or do something with it, because the bill collector will start collecting in 2 years.