polifrog on the Dole...

polifrog



Prior to the Great Depression our "safety net" was predominantly private and functioned efficiently, but during the depression it became strained to the point of near failure due to the fact that as a private system it depended on current dollars of which there were few. Government appropriately stepped in with its ability to borrow from future growth. Hey, it was the Keynesian thing to do.

The problem is that government never stepped back out, and has, in fact, grown its presence in the "safety net" sector of the US to the point of relegating our charity driven private "safety net" to an after thought.

What has been lost in this transition?

In short, the morality of the voluntary. When living off the graciousness of others, seeing the eyes of volunteers, feeling the expectations of betterment, feeling the loss of those who have given, when all of this is under-girded with the morality of voluntarily donated dollars, recipients respond, not with lethargy, but with obligation born of gratitude.

All of the above is lost when funneling our "safety net" through governance and that loss is the source of the inefficiency within our current system. The biggest loss, though, is that of morality. When dollars are forced from some to help others those dollars are amoral, they lack the morality of voluntary action, they become divorced from the human element, and as such, become little more than pieces of paper with which to support sloth.

Government dollars are soulless. They are given without expectation of self betterment, without expressing the pain of those parting with their dollars, without love and most importantly, without the morality of voluntary choice.

Truly, should government be so involved with our "safety net" that it is a permanent fixture throughout the economic cycle? What we have now is neither Keynesian, nor moral.

Perhaps we should reexamine the assumptions that have guided policy for the last 75 years. Maybe government should get involved only during economic downturns. Hey, it's the Keynesian thing to do.



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