My Own Bootstraps
The problem some people have with the poor is that they don’t know any.
If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces.
- Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized
I have a friend who gets a little testy whenever the topic of poverty comes up. He particularly resents that poor people might get a hand from government.
“They should just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, like I did,” he says.
“But,” I’ll say, “suppose we’re talking about a single mother with several children.”
“She should have thought of that before she had them.”
“But now she does have them. Let’s suppose one of the children is asthmatic, like your son. Medicine costs money.”
“I earn my money. She can earn hers. Give them money, and they just go farther into the hole. I don’t want my hard-earned money going to people who just waste it out-of-wedlock crack babies.”
It is important to insert here that I don’t believe my friend is a cruel, heartless man. He is generally kind and generous — a much nicer person than this description of him would suggest. So why does he sound so mean?
For one thing, he doesn’t know any real poor people.
In his business he’s met a few of the ignorant and uneducated. Some of who’ve not paid their bills to him. There are people like that, of course. I don’t like their life choices, either.
But he sees all poor people through this lens. They’re poor because they’re all lazy and make bad choices. He suspects them all of wasting their money on liquor, and of taking advantage of welfare by having child after child without regard to the consequences. He allows for few exceptions. But he doesn’t really know them.
This selective view excuses him from having to struggle with moral questions about his wealth in comparison to the poor in this country, and in much of the rest of the world. It is only justice, he says, that those who earn money should keep it. He believes that a hand up doesn’t really help most people. Charity starts at home, with your own family’s needs. Let the free market work. (He’s never visited a developing country, and I don’t think he quite believes me when I describe the millions of pathetic beggars living the laissez-faire economy on the streets of India.) The government doesn’t help the middle class or the rich: why should it rescue the poor? And anyway, letting the rich get richer causes money to trickle down to those who manufacture their iPods and trim their hedges.
He reinforces and refines this meta-narrative daily, listening to AM radio on his way to work.
The big self-deception in all of this, and the one that weakens the rest of his argument, is that he’s entirely self-made — as though he clawed his way by sheer grit out of a favela in Rio. In fact, he was born into a reasonably happy middle class American home. His parents taught him to work. He got to go to camp, to church, to doctors and orthodontists, and to good schools. They bought him a decent used car and sent him off to college, from which he graduated without debt. He’s never gone hungry, or wanted for a warm bed. It appears to me he got everything he needed in life, and much of what he wanted, too. It isn’t surprising that he grew up to be an honest, hard working professional: he had good opportunities, and made good use of them.
He doesn’t understand that not everyone in the world has the same opportunities, though; and if they don’t, that’s not his concern.
He also believes that he’s earned every dime by the sweat of his brow — ignoring the privileged place his free-to-him education got him, the retirement portfolio where he makes money just by having some already, and his mortgage interest deduction, which is essentially a government subsidy for those with enough money to buy their own house.
We were sitting at the table in a friend’s home one evening. A mention of my recent mission trip to rural Mexico led to a discussion of poverty. “The thing you have to understand,” one of the other guests, a physician’s wife, said, “is that those people are used to being poor. It doesn’t bother them the way it would us.” What to say? Do people get used to being hungry, so that it doesn’t bother them anymore? (I’m remembering a line by George F. Baer, the president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, who took a leading role in busting the 1902 anthracite coal strike. Someone asked him about the suffering of the coal miners. “These men don't suffer,” he said. “Why, hell, half of them don't even speak English.”)
Again, I don’t think this physician’s wife is an unkind woman. If a sick brown baby from another continent were laid in her arms, she’d love and care for it. But the real poor are quite different from the theoretical poor. As long as she doesn’t have to see real poverty, as long as it remains a picture on the news, or a bad neighborhood glimpsed through the window of her car, she can comfort herself with simplified answers and sleep well at night.
Someone may say, “Same old claptrap. Take from the people who work and give it to those who don’t.” That would mischaracterize my point. It is certainly better to create opportunities for people than simply to give handouts. Back in the 60’s and 70’s the United States had a welfare system that expected too little accountability, and while it band-aided a few problems, it wasn’t good for the country. Furthermore, I’m happy for people to get rich; I do my best to spend and save wisely and get a little richer myself.
But I know that I didn’t get this good life all on my own. I was blessed: born in a country with a strong economy, to a stable family who gave me a good education. I inherited the DNA for decent health, intelligence, and character traits. I was born part of America’s historically most privileged racial group.
At the very least, that should make me a little less selfish, and keep me from making generalizations about those who didn’t get the same shot at life that I did.
Search
- Real Cartoonists on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Donna Haerich on Mt. Ellis on the Brink of Winning Big
- Elaine Nelson on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Steve Moran on Mt. Ellis on the Brink of Winning Big
- Bonnie Dwyer on Mt. Ellis on the Brink of Winning Big
- Donna Haerich on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- victor on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Andre Reis on Hate Speech?
- Your Friend on Fascinating Adventist Mathematics
- Your Friend on Hate Speech?
Comments
"The government doesn’t help the middle class or the rich: why should it rescue the poor?"
This is too often the attitude expressed by my SDA friends: "they've got theirs, let the poor work as I have."
But the government DOES help the rich for those who have no knowledge of the billions extended recently.
All the while, just as expressed in the article, they are completely unaware of those who had nothing of the advantages that they probably did.
I suggest that everyone with this idea see the movie "Up in Air" for seeing the actual faces of the many who have worked most of their lives in the same company and because of the economic recession have lost their jobs: and with it their livelihood. These are not lazy folk at all. (There were actual employees pictured who heard this bad news.)
The questions raised: "how can I pay my mortgage on unemployment? What about my children's education, and many more.
Yes, there are people who should never have taken mortgages they could not afford, but the banks that sold them did not care, they got their commissions as they packaged them and sold and resold them.
To hear someone speak of getting a handout from the government: what about the Wall Street millionaires who got a huge "handout" from us--who are the government? And who turned around and gave huge bonuses to the very same people who made their millions by deceptive practices? Why should we excuse them and not the poor people so hurt by those very practices?
Yes, some of us pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, but if we take a serious look, we did have parents that constantly told us that a good education could never be taken from us, that hard work gave us good habits. But, in today's economic recession, the ability to work has been drastically reduced. What about those who have been thrown out of work through no fault of theirs? Should there be no safey nets for them but only for the Wall Street bankers and others who were in collusion and caused this recession?
"There but for the grace of God" we could all be in their shoes.
Great article!
It often baffles me how people make stupid comments about the state of the poor. However, I have to recast my thinking about them as "stupid comments" and understand that they are simply "ignorant comments". If you don't know, haven't lived, or worked in poor communities you'll believe the stereotypical drivel that "all poor people are the same" and that "they all got into their situations the same way". That's like saying all rich people are spoiled heiresses that party and drink their lives away with no thought to hard work. Or conniving heartless coporate swindlers that take advantage of working class people. Isn't that what is shown in the media? But most of us have the good sense to know that these images are not representative of all (or even most) well-off people. Yet, people have a 1-size-fits-all perspective of the poor.
What really upsets me, though, is that in spite of all the texts in both the Old and New Testaments, there are many Christians (who delusionally don't realize that THEY arent wealthy) complain about "injustices" done to the wealthy when people try to assist the poor. Pick up Isaiah, survey Micah, read the life of Jesus, or the writings of Paul-and tell me that the systematic jettisoning of the poor in this country (who are citizens just like you) is in line with the will of God! Adventists especially like to quote Isaiah 58:13...but for some reason, many neglect the 12 verses that come before it!
Loren,
There is a wide variance between the "strawman argument--- my own bootstraps" and how one deals with the less fortunate and discovering the proper role, location,type and amount of government assistance.
No one has the exact formula for WWJD...because the only explicit formula as to "law" was in the OT theocracy.
Compassion and not "explicit rights/demands" is the proper format to work from, I suggest.
regards,
pat
Thanks, Loren. Good stuff.
I'm convinced that being able to see things from someone else's viewpoint is a sign of maturity. I've often thought about what my life might be like if I hadn't been born into an Adventist family, or in the United States, or at this time in history.
Could anyone (outside of Pat Robertson) have watched the news the last few days and maintained the attitude that what happened to those people was all their own fault?
This article reminded me that one of the main problems behind some people's lack of understanding of homosexuals is that they don't know any - or don't know that they do know some (surprise, surprise!)
I just read "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" - background can be found at http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com
Having visited Malawi when my daughter was a Peace Corp volunteer there for two years made the book even more meaningful for me.
One is tempted to say "there but for the grace of God go I", except that odds on I would have been one of the even less resourceful who died in the famine
In our society, in the USA, a smart person who is not too damaged by his childhood can work his way into a pleasant working or middle class existence.
In a country like Malawi, or in a concentration camp, or in even in the USA in a really bad area, the smart person needs luck also.
If you are born with a genuine initial problem - low IQ, psych problems, health problems - or if you got bad guidance from the family/neighborhood you were born in - you may never be able to get out.
Having said that, it is painful to me to watch the "aid" being incorrectly and badly directed, causing many problems to be self-perpetuate rather than get fixed.
For instance, now would be a great time to build a better city in Haiti, not to just put it back the way it was. Ten years ago would have been an even better time.
Sending food to Africa is a bad idea. Instead we should be helping their farmers by reducing their costs by building better roads for them. It is very hard to steal a road.
/Bevin EMT-P who deals with the less fortunate every time he works a 911 shift
OK, my question is HOW DO WE HELP THE POOR? What exactly is the proper response to poverty when poverty is built into the social structure of some societies. It doesn't seem like a hand out is much help if its not accompanied by education - a total restructuring of societies where people have the possibility of caring for themselves, not just sit on the door stoop and wait for help.
I knew some poor people - my parents. You can't get any poorer than they were sitting in a leaky boat crossing the Baltic sea while German U boats were patrolling. The only baggage they had was one suitcase 2.5 ft. by 3.5 ft.; and all it contained was some clothes for their two-year old - me. We were war refugees fleeing for our lives. We reached the Swedish shore and were given humanitarian help - straw mattrasses on a gym floor, followed by a bus ride to a strange city, with strange language. My parents were given jobs in a textile factory, where my dad learned to speak the language and became manager of his department withing six years. After a couple of years my mom was able to stay home and care for her child. But my parents couldn't shake the idea that there was more - across the ocean in America; so after seven years in Sweden we boarded a ship bound for the "promised land". When we passed the Statue of Liberty in NY harbor we had a couple more suitcases than before, but again, a strange city and a strange language.
I didn't consider myself poor at the time, but we had no home, we couldn't speak the language, and my parents didn't have jobs. I guess that qualifies for poor. Admittedly, there was promise for a job for my dad, the possibility for one for my mom. My dad's job was to clear out some guy's over-grown back yard. The guy owned a plumbing company. With this initial introduction to the plumbing business my dad ended up a unionized plumber in the state of NY, again making a good living for his family. This is called INITIATIVE; without it, the poor can be showered with all they need and then some, without making a dent in their poverty.
Read "Africa Doesn't Matter" by Giles Bolton.
His ideas can be summarized as
(a) don't put money into corrupt regimes - let them fail
(b) don't split your money into small donations - give it all through a single large agency so that the receiving country doesn't spend all its effort justifying and tracking the spendng
(c) don't micromanage the money - in the healthy regimes, just put it into the general fund.
Malawi is supposedly the poorest country in Africa, yet what I saw was people doing reasonable things with the very limited resources they that had. What they lacked was enough funds to make the big improvements that would begin the cycle of wealth - such as good roads and good schools.
The 'aid' that is given is often a millstone. Instead of helping the healthy create a working economy, helping the ill simply adds to the social burden. Instead of helping the farmers, food aid demolishes their livelyhood by uncutting their free market prices.
Malawi has 18M people, and yet its paved highways are numbered in the single digits.
Here is an example of 'aid' that will have a long term impact -
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/malawi-india-signs-three-... - the roads that are being built to access this will reduce the cost of transport dramatically, helping get the positive feedback loop that produces our wealth.
Now think about these programs
http://adramalawi.blogspot.com/
- does Malawi really need outside people for its AIDS/HIV program, or does it need money for its health care?
- does Malawi (Africa, remember) really need dairy cows?
/Bevin
David Brooks in a current New York Times column (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?em)
about Haiti points out that some cultures have developed ways of thinking about themselves that make development difficult. He advocates, if not a return to "the white man's burden," at least something similar: outsiders, if they want to help, should break into these cultures and create a functioning micro culture, a bridgehead for progress, to function as a culture to be emulated.
I find myself agreeing with the thrust of his argument.
Cultural mind-sets create personal, national and ethnic destinies. The way "we" think is just as important as the way "I" think in shaping us. We see this in our own country. In the US African-Americans grossly under-perform academically--not because of poverty, but because of a massive cultural resistance to embracing the educated person as a cultural icon. The same is also true of large swaths of white America who have nothing but contempt for "pointy-headed liberal elitists" or "nerds." Half, if not more, of all advanced science degrees in the US are awarded to foreign students. To be knowledgeable about sports and cars and beer brands are seen as vastly more appealing qualities by many than being educated and informed. In Haiti voodoo contributes to dysfunction; in this country it's "voodoo economics"--to quote George Bush 41 and the glorification of "dumb."
I'm not as optimistic as Brooks that the establishment of a functioning counterculture will do wonders either abroad or at home but I do support the idea. We all, poor and rich, need to look for cultural role models and seek function over popular dysfunction.
"George Egwakhe is fighting the poverty mind-set.
The son of farmers in rural Nigeria, Egwakhe now encourages Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in West-Central Africa to abandon the phrase “I’m poor.”
“I disagree with that mentality; I don’t accept it,” said Egwakhe, an associate treasurer at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the United States."
Maybe Loren, and others, would like to read what a person said who grew up in poverty.
See: http://www.adventistworld.org/article.php?id=685
Yes, indeed - life style is a function of culture, geographic environment, and current assets
/Bevin
It is very hard to steal a road.
Posted by: bevin | 15 January 2010 at 10:34
******
Indeed, but it's very easy to build a road so poorly that your company needs to come back into the country every year and rebuild it, for funds of course.
Construction projects of whatever kind are an easy scam, fraught with theft of materials and equipment, underpaid local labor, overpaid administration, padded budgets and poor workmanship. I say this based on observation of local and international companies building roads and buildings in Jamaica between the '90s and the '00s.
In Haiti voodoo contributes to dysfunction...
Posted by: Aage Rendalen (not verified) | 16 January 2010 at 3:56
*******
Aage, would you please extend this thought? I'm wondering what you had in mind when you wrote it.
KM
I should no doubt have hedged by using the word "allegedly" since I don't have any personal evidence of this. I was reflecting Brook's assessment in the Times column:
"As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10."
>>> Indeed, but it's very easy to build a road so poorly that your company needs to come back into the country every year and rebuild it, for funds of course.
All aid carries this risk. That is why Bolton says to only fund countries where corruption is under control, then let those countries manage their own contracts.
In Zambia we travelled on a terrible piece of road - ruts, rocks, sand, pot-holes. The middle-aged local woman we gave a hitch-hike ride to from the side of the road in her small village surprised us by (a) telling us about her sons in Germany and Canada, (b) by giving a very cogent account of the aid work she and others were involved with in the area, and (c) describing how the government was going after the contractor who had done the shoddy work on the road.
Once the road has been made, it is very hard to steal - the materials are practically worthless for other purposes and the locals have a strong incentive for it to stay in good condition.
Unlike the road signs, which were made of metal with lots of holes in the sheets, because if they were solid metal the locals would have reused them.
/Bevin
Aage, Bevin -- thanks for responding.
I think one could just as easily blame Christian dogma about determinism and preordination for the unwillingness to creatively engage the present and plan for the future I've seen in developed nations.
In my encounters with people from various native traditions, on the other hand, I see a very strong concern for the future and for personal action. Take the Iroquois' 7th-generation ethic, which asks people to consider how their actions will affect the seventh generation after them. That's one example and isn't at all isolated. I guess I just don't find the Times commentary very compelling. :) But I respect that you do.
Bevin, I understand what you're saying and agree that all kinds of aid efforts have to contend with accountability issues. It's nice to hear the story from Zambia.
From Aage:
The same is also true of large swaths of white America who have nothing but contempt for "pointy-headed liberal elitists" or "nerds." Half, if not more, of all advanced science degrees in the US are awarded to foreign students. To be knowledgeable about sports and cars and beer brands are seen as vastly more appealing qualities by many than being educated and informed.
Aage, I've noted the same. Check out this great piece by Mark Slouka. Quote:
"What we need to talk about, what someone needs to talk about, particularly now, is our ever-deepening ignorance (of politics, of foreign languages, of history, of science, of current affairs, of pretty much everything) and not just our ignorance but our complacency in the face of it, our growing fondness for it. A generation ago the proof of our foolishness, held up to our faces, might still have elicited some redeeming twinge of shame—no longer. Today, across vast swaths of the republic, it amuses and comforts us. We're deeply loyal to it. Ignorance gives us a sense of community; it confers citizenship; our representatives either share it or bow down to it or risk our wrath."
I agree with the person who said God's people must also pay heed to Isaiah 58:1-12 (as well as Deuteronomy 15, 1Timothy 6: 17-19). And with everyone who said, "There but for the grace of God, go I..." As a Community Outreach leader I often wrestle with the questions of the effectiveness of our donations and whether or not the person in need is sincerely so or whether or not giving will even make a difference. Often the arguments Loren's friend made about the poor help us to rationalize not giving if we think about it too long. Then I think about developing Jesus' compassion - He had the same compassion for the "poor slug" sitting hopelessly just at the edge of the pool for years as he did for the rich young ruler who thought he had everything. Many of the scholarly and "rich" don't realize they need healing too! And then I think about developing Jesus' and Paul's attitude toward Christian giving - and that is to give wisely with a pure heart directing people to God as the ultimate Giver and let the Holy Spirit take it from there. Scholarly knowledge isn't nearly as valuable as Godly wisdom and common sense and Jesus' heart in these matters. Let God's people earnestly seek after the latter. Many of our uneducated and unsophisticated grandmas lived so much "smarter" than we do today.
Loren
Thank's for the reference. It's a great article. Reveling in ignorance is dangerous for a country's prospects. The US is falling behind the rest of the industrialized world with respect to infrastructure, wages, education, culture, health care, longevity and quality of life. 'Dumb' is not the solution to such enormous challenges.
My people perish for lack of knowledge, I seem to remember one of the prophets saying. The price of ignorance is much more apparent when we see it abroad, when some Africans argue that condoms cause AIDS (because they didn't have any such problem before activists began advocating the use of contraceptives.) We're appalled when hear of kids being killed, accused of being witches and young girls being raped by men seeking a cure for AIDS. It's harder to see 'dumb' in one's own backyard. When people argue that climate change is a hoax, that the United Nations stands ready to launch an armada of black helicopters to take over the US, when people think the President of the United States is a totalitarian socialist bent on destroying this country--when we let our brains be addled by tea bags we're dealing in the same currency of dumb.
This country is in decline; we need to rehabilitate 'smart.'
Aage and Loren,
It's interesting how one group of "intelligentsia" sees the solutions as being more and more government involvement and the "old view" still believes "limited government" and individual responsibility with "equality of law" and compassion for the less fortunate is the proper way.
I agree the best days seem to be gone. This country is now using it's old wealth as firewood to keep the house warm. The firewood will run out without the means to produce more. I believe for some time we have been in the "process" of statism and economic facism. Elements of the church, I believe, will happily join the process.
----------
Rhonda--"Many of the scholarly and "rich" don't realize they need healing too!...Many of our uneducated and unsophisticated grandmas lived so much "smarter" than we do today."
Amen!
regards,
pat
We have to remember that more than one in ten Haitians are Seventh-day Adventists. Is voodoo part of their lifestyle? I hope not. In general, Adventism leads to higher education and self-improvement.
There must be a middle road somewhere between condemning the people of Haiti for their attitude of helplessness and dependency, and continuing to throw more financial aid at the problem when that hasn't worked in the past.
It seems to me the answer must lie in really trying to understand their background and what conditions have made for their terrible poverty and inability to overcome it, and then getting in and getting our hands dirty by working on the root problems.
In talking to former ADRA director Ralph Watts a couple of days ago I learned that ADRA used to be the third largest NGO in the country, but had to leave because so many ADRA workers were being kidnapped and killed.
Aage,
My favorite line in Slouka's essay: "It comes down to the unpleasant fact that a significant number of our fellow citizens are now as greedy and gullible as a boxful of puppies; they'll believe anything; they'll attack the empty glove; they'll follow that plastic bone right off the cliff."
Carrol,
I ran across a great blog post this week about Haiti (Is God Angry at Haiti?) that I read to my congregation yesterday. This is a marvelous line: "No one in the impoverished nation of Haiti has sinned worse than those of us in the extremely prosperous nation of the United States. We’re all sinners, we all stand on a level ground before the cross."
I think the argument can be made that we're more culpable than they are, because we could have done more than we have to help that country.
LGS
Pat,
I'm not sure that the answer is more government money being thrown in the direction of the needy, and I tried not to sound in the piece like I know the whole answer; there are other ways to craft responses. I think a lot of us could agree that education and job creation is better than welfare payments.
However, I admit my thinking about laissez-faire economics was much affected by seeing it in action in some third world countries. Leaving the poor to dig themselves out of poverty doesn't seem to be a strategy for advancement. My point here is simply that I have enjoyed success in life (such as it is) at least in part because of a good middle-class upbringing. So it won't do to put all the blame and responsibility on the poor.
Loren
Sirje,
My grandparents were immigrants, and spent some time in sod houses in ND. I remember living without indoor plumbing, myself, in a three room house without central heating. Still, even though we were poor and worked hard, there was always hope, which blossomed into reality as our farm prospered, and eventually we got a better house with plumbing, and most important, all of us went to college.
What I've found in so many developing countries is no hope. The heart of it seems to be corruption so deep that no matter what you do, you can never get ahead without doing something illegal. When developing countries like Botswana have take action against government corruption, they've often leaped ahead. But in some places, like Haiti, corruption is not confined to a plutocracy, but has saturated the entire culture. No one trusts anyone else. How do you root that out of an entire society? I'm not sure. Isn't it interesting, though, that when people from some of these very poor, corrupt countries come here, their hard work pays off and they thrive? They work hard, their children go to college, and life changes dramatically.
LGS
Sirje,
We easily forget that the U.S. has always been seen as the land of opportunity.
However, if generations of our families had lived in dictatorships and corruption as rampant as Haiti and many other foreign countries, where would our will be to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps if we had no boots!
We have begun to realize corruption here in the U.S. but is it minuscle compared with so many countries that it is hard for us to understand that living in such a corrupted country,the people become mentally imprisoned and cannot think otherwise except for survival.
We would behave no differently than the Haitians if we had been without food or water for 5-6 days.
Loren and Elaine,
When I read this article I realized it was precipitated by what's happening, and HAS BEEN happening in Haiti, but I also got the idea that the article referred to a broader application of the "boot strap" idea.
It is our duty, as Americans, to give humanitarian aid where ever the need. While Haiti had been there for a very long time but only now has come into focus. Might we have helped build better buildings and infrastructures that would have prevented the severity of destruction (possibly). US aid in some of these countries is tricky, I realize, but it seems like the media and, especially the entertainment industry, latches on to some of these causes only when the problems hit them in the face. It's almost too late to start organizing rescue teams after an event like this. People are long dead before the cranes and bulldozers get there. But, of course, there is lots of work to be done for the survivors.
Compared to most of the earth's population, the majority of North Americans are rich; but there is a segment of the our population that has made welfare into a way of life - a subculture. There is no excuse for that. Healthy young people are languishing in our cities just waiting for a handout. This is where education, along with temporary emergency aid is needed. It's not helping anyone to just throw social assistance at them so they can languish some more.
I realize it's not that simple. There are cultural issues here as well that make the whole thing complicated - and babies need shelter and food now.
Many years ago the book THE UGLY AMERICAN was circulating, pointing out the naivety of the American attitudes about other cultures. I think those days are past, but maybe not entirely. We like to buy countries with our aid and maybe that's not the way to help. It's always about the money more than actual aid for the populations. the only aid I think I can trust is what comes from private citizens without government interference.
The Acts 2 communities shared and gave out of hearts transformed by Jesus' teachings and love. It wasn't a "commune" where they were forced by the government to put everything in the community pot- they volunteered - motivated by revolutionary love. And this was all done while under Roman tyranny and taxing...
The folks criticized on the AM radio waves for advocating people be able to have control over their own money (vs the govt) btw give a much higher percentage of their earnings to charities and humanitarian causes than those in the govt who want to tax and spend everyone else's money.
Rhonda
I was a member of the Augusta United Way Board for two 4 year terms. One of the Board's tasks was to review the books of each agency and then make an allocation based upon the requests, our fund drive results, and the past years' history the the agency's performance. I also was an accreditation site visitor (examiner) for 33 Academic Health Centers and Universities. I can say from personal experience that the private agencies had no better track record that the government in the direct use of funds for humanitarian purposes. In both cases, the large portion the funds went for
overhead and administrative costs including travel, etc.
I found that the Red Cross and the Salvation Army among the worst in lavish empire building. Tom
Rhonda
It matters little that idealistic people give to charity when the task at hand is way beyond the reach of private effort. Government funds are raised by coercion, aka taxation. Taxation is the only way a society can raise the funds necessary to build society. Taxation is the price of civilization. One reason this country is falling behind so many other countries is that we focus more on consuming than investing in our nation.
The good thing is that our government still has legitimacy. It commands enough respect that it can, with some success, ask people to to sacrifice for something greater than their own self-interest. Corruption destroys the legitimacy of government. It destroys the concept of the common good. What remains is an atomistic society in which everybody is only looking out for no. 1. That's the tragedy that has befallen much of the developing world.
The people who fill the streets with posters and placards that cast our President and government as an illegitimate, alien conspiracy against the American people--be the government red or blue--are truly the enemies of society.
Tom
Sorry to hear about the empire building/bureaucracy overload with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Do you know if ADRA is registered with the ECFA? Alot of the Christian missions/ministries are registered with them and thus have to be transparent about how they use their $$$.
Aage
Agree that government funding and government intervention are needed for some things - just not everything! Govt cannot change hearts, which I think is the main thrust of Loren's Bootstrap article. Also, I'm trying to say that our response as Christians to loving our neighbors cannot not be influenced by what we think is fitting and proper for our government to do.
With blessings to you both!
So many of those who believe in "self-reliance" benefit from government programs of their own. I'd love to see some of the farmers who are opposed to government aid programs start to turn down government aid. I'd like to see some of you who hate welfare payments turn down your social security payments. Oh, yes, you paid into it. You deserve it. Really? You paid taxes. But, you don't have to take social security. Refuse it to show your principals. The middle class and the rich benefit from lots of government programs, but they think those are justified.
I was raised and educated an Adventist, but have not been a member for years. It seems to me that middle class, upper middle class, and upper class Americans (as was said of both Presidents Bush) were born on third base and thought we hit a triple. Those of us who make more money than many may have worked hard or we may be lucky or, more likely, we may be some combination of the two. No one gets rich or becomes well off only from working hard. If that were the case, the migrant farm workers from our neighbor to the south would be the richest people in this country.
I find it amusing that Christians, and particularly Adventists, consider that they have earned what they have and that the poor should be satisfied or are lazy. We deserve our money. Yet, these same people in their religious lives claim that they are sinful wretches who deserve nothing but death. They also claim that everything is the Lord's. They don't act like it. (Of course, neither do I, but I don't claim to be a Christian.)
What was it Jesus said in response to the rich young ruler's question regarding the path to salvation? He first said, "Keep the commandments." (Adventists heartily approve of that statement.) When the man said he had kept the commandments from his youth, Jesus told him to sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and follow him. The man went away sad. Almost no Christians follow Jesus' directive. Christians and Adventists claim that Jesus is God and that they are his followers. I submit that they do not really believe it. They are not his followers. They believe a story about Jesus, but they follow Paul, not Jesus.
Loren,
Thank you. Amen.
John McLarty,
A privileged, rich, educated, intelligent, hard-working, financially responsible, bleeding heart liberal.
exandglad,
Had to chuckle at your observations about people not realizing they benefit from government. I grew up in farm country, and remember people sitting around after church on Sabbath, scolding about those city people who received welfare. The irony is that no one gets more welfare than American agriculture! There were decades when, without government payments, farmers would have gone broke.
The related statement was "I farm because I'm my own boss." In fact, in those years, the government told you exactly what to plant, and how much to leave fallow. Again, our skewed view of our own world.
Loren
>>> We have to remember that more than one in ten Haitians are Seventh-day Adventists. Is voodoo part of their lifestyle? I hope not. In general, Adventism leads to higher education and self-improvement.
I don't know about Haiti, but I do know about Malawi. A person 'belonged to' which ever denomination has built the nearest church building. They ALSO tolerate or follow any other denomination, or religion, which is convenient for their social life.
"Being an SDA" in Africa or many other parts of the world does not mean the same it does here. It doesn't restrict your religious beliefs any more than being a member of the AARP stops you from being a member of the ACLU or the NRA.
/Bevin
I agree with Bevin that instead of religious beliefs it's one's social network, or one's support system, that matters more. Adventism appears to be a significant factor in the upward social mobility of many of its members in my country; but so have other social organizations and family connections that defy the odds in favor of those who belong to the same social group.
How about that Greg Mortenson and " Three Cups of tea." Just imagine what good all the trillions of dollars would have done if it had been spent for education rather than for WAR.
Insanity has been said to be "to do the same thing over and over again and expect a diffferent result"
When will we ever learn?
How long will we wait for the Messiah to come and wave a magic wand and make every thing alright while WE fail to live according to the priniples HE taught.
Aage, thanks for posting the David Brooks op-ed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?em
You said:
He advocates, if not a return to "the white man's burden," at least something similar: outsiders, if they want to help, should break into these cultures and create a functioning micro culture, a bridgehead for progress, to function as a culture to be emulated.
I find myself agreeing with the thrust of his argument.
I think it little matters who creates a functioning micro culture, insiders or outsiders, just that someone does, as Toshiro Kanamori did for his ten-year-olds in Japan:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.youtube.com%252Fw...
I think this idea of a "functioning micro culture" is hugely important and timely on all manner of fronts!!!
See Seth Godin's TED Talk on Tribes:
http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
A story out of the distance past. In 1934 my dad and mother decided that the family should return to the family farm about 4 miles from E.M.C. so that their children could have the benefit of a Christian education. My dad returned to the farm in the spring. The farm had been abandoned by a share cropper Adventist. Once abandoned the farm was looted of its fences, its electric generator, its pumps, etc. Dad decided to buy milk cows, street worn horses from Chicago, and to plant corn, and potatoes. That was the year of the great dust bowl. It affected even Southern Michigan. Dad planted 40 bushels of seed potatoes. In the fall when the family moved to the farm from Pound, Wisc. My brother and I were able to dig five bushels of potatoes. Evough to last the family through the winter. The milk cows, brought us five dollars a week from the dairy. Dad had taken a loan from the Federal Government of $400.00 to buy the seed and the live stock.
In 1937 we lost the farm through back taxes. $3,700.00 would have saved the family farm.
We moved in to a rental house in string town and dad returned to his building trade, building the James White Memorial Library at E.M.C.
Year later in about 1953-4 Dad was building churches for the Illinois Conference in the greater Chicago area. He and mother lived in a rental apartment in Brookfield, Ill. Dad drove a 10 year old Chev. One evening he parked in front of his apartment and was approached by two gentlemen. They showed dad their identification. Dad invited them into the apartment. They said, that their records indicated that dad had taken out a federal loan in the amount of $400.00 in i934 and had not repaid the loan. They were here to collect that loan plus interest. Dad asked them if they had a daily quota of collection. They responded yes. Dad asked how much? The responding $100.00 each. Dad said, I have $80.00 in my billfold. If I give you that $80.00 will you call it square. The men both agreed. The deal was made and the debt was marked paid in full.
In that time mother and dad had raised four children two through a doctorate, one through two doctorates, and one through a B.S. degree from Andrews. The tax return from all four children and their offspring amounts into the high six figures.
The Lord is good and the government is generally rational. Of course there are governmental horror stories to compete with the above. Mother and Dad rest quietly just West of the Campus of LLU. We in our eighties expect to join them soon without regrets and with great assurance first gained from Christian parents and then from a loving Heavenly Father. Now why can't churches deal with humanity with the same grace as
our government, our parents, and our Lord? Tom
The problem with the bleeding hearts is that they always want to give away someone else's money. They always want to impose their will upon their neighbors. Oh I suppose there is the occassional hollywood elite actor who throws a million or two at the poor. But that is easy to do when a person makes millions upon millions of dollars for pretending to be someone they are not. Aside from that you don't see too many liberals refusing to take their tax exemptions. So, dear liberals, would you please contain yourselves a bit and stop trying to control everyone else. If you want to give your money away go right ahead, but please leave me out of the equation.
P.S.-I live in the Bronx. I see the devistation to family and culture that results from decades of mindless welfare.
Both mindless wealthfare and mindless capitalism both cause devastation.
Our society has invented and enforces a concept of ownership.
We insist that an individual is not entitled to go to sea and fish as much as they like, is not entitled to put as much smoke into the air as they like, to go to a piece of vacant land and farm it, to hunt any animal, to create a radio station, to use a patented idea without licensing it. We insist that they wear appropriate clothes, act in appropriate manners, don't pee on the streets,
In exchange for their agreeing abiding by this arbitrary concept of ownership our society has agreed to compensate them for their losses by providing alternatives.
We could just shoot people who jay-walk, but we have decided that is not cost effective. Instead we aim for a cost effective tradeoff, using prevention and cure as well as punishment.
We just don't do it very well - partially because of people who vote to give money to ineffective programs, but equally because of people who vote not to give money to effective programs.
/Bevin
I always beleive that Charity starts at home and with your own family’s needs because they are must. Let the free market work. (He’s never visited a developing country, and I don’t think he quite believes me when I describe the millions of pathetic beggars.
it's the diffent of values.I think poor people didn't need ruth.
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