Government provides the least efficient way to help the poor

to Haveaheart, Do YOU have a heart?..I understand Katherinerose in trusting God with our fertility...we are a very large family and have had to rely on govt assistance when my husband's business did not do well, at times...I can't believe you would think the only time to be open to life is when you have all future expenses accumulated in your savings account---does that include college tuition as well?..people have passed judgment on us for needing assistance, but our pastor explains this as social justice..our faith teaches us to be open to life and trust God to provide for our needs---maybe not in the way we would like, but we have always been provided for...our children are a blessing to many and we believe will contribute good to many in the future...the govt has helped us, but it is a very poorly run system and certainly overspends in ways everyday people and families could never do.

HAVEAHEART,

My husband and I believe in leaving our fertility in the hands of God. While certain grave situations would encourage us to abstain, would your excuse simply be that we aren't paying for everything?

We trust in God and He has never let us down.

I don't trust the government and those who run it let us down constantly.

Where would you put your trust?

American charity has failed to help the poor adequately. Government programs work and they are efficient. The headline here is misleading.

"When the federal government trusts its citizens with the right to keep and spend their own money instead of punishing those who earn more with higher taxes, the "rich" spend in ways that stimulate the economy, invest in businesses that create jobs, and give generously to charity. It's the American way."

Well, I am still waiting for all those jobs that we were going to get from the first time the Bush tax cuts were enacted. Remember, they would grow the economy and the pie would be so much larger that the bigger pie would make up for the smaller percent of taxes.

What we have really seen is a concentration of wealth that may now surpass what it was just before the Great Depression. We have seen the middle class incomes stagnate while the increases in income have gone to the households with the highest 10% of income.

The jobs continue to flow to China, Mexico, and India. Now Sri Lanka is becoming a haven for outsourcing accounting work.

All this pie in the sky hype is just that, hype, if you look at what has happened to income distribution and wages since about 1980. Unemployment is closer to 17% than the 9% published by the government because of so many who have stopped looking after years of unemployment and because of persistent underemployment.

We had something when the government invested in technology (even if most of it was defense related), when the GI Bill created an opportunity for young people to go to college. We invested in creating a future that made us unequaled economically. When we stopped investing in ourselves, we started loosing. Capitalism is not some genie that waves a wand to create jobs. Nor, is it a God, even though many seem to worship at its feet. It is an economic system with a lot of good and a lot of flaws, but it can be nurtured. Left alone to run on its own, we get what we got - near financial collapse and disappearing jobs.

Interesting that the term "the rich" makes you squirm but "the poor" doesn't. Just an observation.

So, government is the least "efficient" way to help "the poor". OK, let's take your statement as fact. Let's propose that starting December 25, 2010 the federal, state, and local governments in the US stop all funding for "the poor". Since the government is so inefficient it shouldn't take more than a day for "the rich" to "give generously to charity". That should prevent anyone from freezing to death this winter. All food stamps expire on 12-25-10. All WIC coupons also expire on the same day. Medicaid closes up shop in every state the same day. Any funding for homeless shelters, whether run by private charities or public institutions stops. All public hospitals will close forever on 12-25-10. Surely the country's private hospitals will pick up the slack, it's the American way.

So let's hear it for "the rich" since they are going to help out "the poor" so no one's tax dollars will be at risk of being tainted by un-American public funding for "the poor".

With all due respect, Katherinerose, why did you have four children in four years if you and your husband could not afford to support them?

A jet makes you more efficient and flowers make you happy. Say it fast and say it with flowers. The fresher the better. You need to deliver. Why wait?

My husband and I are in the lowest bracket not making enough to give the government anything. We have four children, our oldest is not yet 5.

My parents are in the highest bracket and the government takes almost half of their income. They support my 2 brothers at college and are helping us right now until my husband gets a full time job. They also contribute to a number of charities.

For me the question is not, "is it moral to give tax cuts to the wealthy?" but rather "is it moral for the government to take almost half of anyone's income?" It would be one thing if the government were actually an efficient public-serving institution. It is so far from it that it is laughable. Not giving "tax cuts to the wealthy" only gives more money to the pocket-stuffing thieves in washington to spend on their jets, their parties, and their earmarks and pork.

America was born with the understanding that it was a land of opportunity and that you could be what you chose to make of yourself. A government that steals from it's people no longer serves the people and undermines the potential for human achievement in a country that used to really call people to be all that they could be.