Реферат на тему UnH1d Essay Research Paper Essay on Poverty
Работа добавлена на сайт bukvasha.net: 2015-06-18Поможем написать учебную работу
Если у вас возникли сложности с курсовой, контрольной, дипломной, рефератом, отчетом по практике, научно-исследовательской и любой другой работой - мы готовы помочь.
Untitled Essay, Research Paper
Essay on Poverty and Welfare
Today it seems as if everyone has a theory about fighting poverty, now it
is not necessary
to be moving in the theoretical plane. Our country has had successful
anti-poverty
programs that were effective back a century ago, effective because they were
based
on these seven points: affiliation, bonding, categorization, discernment,
employment,
freedom, and God. But a key element in all of them is personal involvement
and
challenge, both material and spiritual.
If folks a hundred years ago could
help others to move out of poverty,
and then turn their attention to the next group of immigrants and impoverished,
why
can’t we? Did they have more time than we do? No, even though we feel stressed,
their
work days on the average were longer. Did they have more money? No, we are
far
more affluent as a society now. Did they have more space in their homes,
so they could
take in another person and we cannot? No, on the average our houses are far
larger.
Did they have less of a drug and alcohol problem? Probably not. They did
have fewer
single-parenting situations – there was less illegitimacy and divorce then
- but life
expectancy was lower, so there were lots of orphans and half-orphans. We’re
more
spread out now, but our travel time is not any greater.
What I learned leads me to wonder:
Why can’t we do the same? Were
Americans then a different people than we are today? Have we become so
corrupted
that we don’t care about others? Have we become so lazy that we are unwilling
to
suffer with? I think not. I hope not. But we have become used to having someone
else
do it for us – even though we know that a professional social worker, with
a case load of
200 or so, can’t do much more than shuffle paper. Bad charity drives out
good.
My conclusion is that when we
complain about a spendthrift modern
welfare state, we’re right about the costs but we’re actually stating the
problem
backwards. The major flaw of the modern welfare state is not that it is
extravagant, but
that it is too stingy. It gives the needy bread and tells them to be content
with that
alone. It gives the rest of us the opportunity to be stingy also: We can
soothe our
consciences as we scrimp on what many of the destitute need most – love,
time, and
challenge. We need to recapture the optimism that a look at history can provide.
We
need to recapture the understanding that a true definition of compassion
suggests.