The Problems with Liberalism, Part 6

6. A liberal believes that sometimes bad things happen to good people.

• This is a curious statement. DocBrain would say that bad things happen to everyone, good and bad.
• Sometimes the bad things are due to circumstances beyond a person's control. Other times, they are chickens coming home to roost.
• Sometimes a thing is only as it seems: bad to some and good to others, depending upon perspective, hopefulness/hopelessness, and positivity/negativity. I have seen people laid low by the most trivial and others rise to face the most dire. One need not accept a bad thing as being unfair or unremediable.
• Yet, it is true that bad things happen and at those times it is important to have others there to reach out with an open heart. Recent events in Haiti and elsewhere in the world have shown how generous Americans are. Generosity begins at home and the fear that Americans would not be generous to the truly needy and deserving within our borders is not documented with data.
• A safety net of good people donating what they have is more ennobling than a welfare system/state. It is good for people to feel responsible for their neighbors and for neighbors to pay it forward as good things begin to happen for them. A purpose to help trumps a tax to take.
• DocBrain still remembers the charity clinics and city hospitals that cared for the less fortunate. These were phased out as the theory was that the poor would be more likely to take care of themselves if not forced to present themselves for charity. If they felt entitled to care they would be more likely to seek care and adhere to therapy. A reasonable thought. However, when adherence to therapy and seeking of care was measured, it was no better under the entitlement program than under the charity program. And it cost more. So, the logical approach was to. . . of course, increase the entitlement programs and even make it illegal to provide free care to anyone eligible for the entitlement.

In summary, when bad things happen to good people, it is more reassuring to know that other good people are there to lend a hand than to rely on the beneficence of a government that takes forcibly in order to give grudgingly.