Hypothetically speaking
One of the great things about being human is trying to predict the future. I'm not talking about building nests like birds or laying in provisions like bees, I'm talking about predicting the future of the world.
When we look at the events that occur, we try to place them within some internal construct. This internal construct is usually made up of core beliefs about nature and man. However, beliefs are no substitute for facts.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/stats/6090_ch2.htm
One belief is that welfare has some benefit beyond the individual payments. The above graph would suggest the opposite. While the population of the US has grown, the percent on welfare has remained relatively the same, taking into account the legal reforms that changed the impetus and eligability for welfare in the mid 1960s and 1990s. Using a medical model, if there was a serious disease that affected 2-5% of the population and we spent billions on treatment and decades later it still affected 2-5% of the population, I doubt that anyone would claim that we had conquered the disease. Some might claim that we should have been trying harder to solve the problem.
The problem, of course, is that some people cannot work and others believe they cannot, which in our society is looked at as the same thing. DocBrain sees about as many MR and CP people who would really like to work as mentally and physically normal people who are trying hard to avoid it. Yesterday, one young girl with MR and epilepsy cried about how she wants to work but is being held back. Another patient, a 50 year old healthy man, threatened that I would be responsible for anything bad that happened on the job to his coworkers if I dared to release him to work. I was his last hope, as two other doctors had released him to work earlier that day.
The points? Things are usually not as simple as we think they are. Governments can solve problems that have to do with human nature only if coercive force is used. Throwing money at a problem does not solve the problem. Only human will, work, and wisdom can do that, and no government has a monopoly on any of these.
When we look at the events that occur, we try to place them within some internal construct. This internal construct is usually made up of core beliefs about nature and man. However, beliefs are no substitute for facts.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/news/stats/6090_ch2.htm
One belief is that welfare has some benefit beyond the individual payments. The above graph would suggest the opposite. While the population of the US has grown, the percent on welfare has remained relatively the same, taking into account the legal reforms that changed the impetus and eligability for welfare in the mid 1960s and 1990s. Using a medical model, if there was a serious disease that affected 2-5% of the population and we spent billions on treatment and decades later it still affected 2-5% of the population, I doubt that anyone would claim that we had conquered the disease. Some might claim that we should have been trying harder to solve the problem.
The problem, of course, is that some people cannot work and others believe they cannot, which in our society is looked at as the same thing. DocBrain sees about as many MR and CP people who would really like to work as mentally and physically normal people who are trying hard to avoid it. Yesterday, one young girl with MR and epilepsy cried about how she wants to work but is being held back. Another patient, a 50 year old healthy man, threatened that I would be responsible for anything bad that happened on the job to his coworkers if I dared to release him to work. I was his last hope, as two other doctors had released him to work earlier that day.
The points? Things are usually not as simple as we think they are. Governments can solve problems that have to do with human nature only if coercive force is used. Throwing money at a problem does not solve the problem. Only human will, work, and wisdom can do that, and no government has a monopoly on any of these.
posted by DocBrain at
4:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home