Welfare makes it worse
Government welfare is the worst way to help people in poverty. It is unethically financed with involuntary taxes. The agencies are extremely wasteful. And they manage to make the problem worse.
Need becomes the business
Some government organizations also rely on taxpayer funding, and poorly designed funding systems can create incentives to focus on the number of people receiving assistance rather than whether those people become self-sufficient. The incentive turns upside down. The more “needy” people they can count, the more money they receive. Subsidize housing, addiction, and idleness, and you get more homeless people, more addicts, and more people who do not work. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes on purpose.
A handout is still a handout
True charity, paid with voluntary donations and run by people who care about the mission, should be applauded. It is not a bureaucracy. It is still a short-term fix. Handouts create dependence.
The goal is to need no one
Self-sufficiency is the aim. Entrepreneurship is the fastest path known for a person to change his finances while keeping his dignity and his independence.
After more than two decades of high-profile advocacy aimed at alleviating extreme poverty in Africa, efforts that helped mobilize billions of dollars in government aid, the famous lead singer of U2 said,
“In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is the cure.”
- Bono
Rod Grants
In 2024 I started Rod Grants. Each one ranges from $100 to $1,000. Capital for one person, not a program and not an organization, so he can buy the tool, the inventory, or the license. The fishing rod. Labor becomes a living. He can provide for himself, and put his family on a path toward self-sufficiency.