Not a hand out, a helping hand

Something sensible people have said for years is that welfare should be a helping hand, not a hand out and not a lifestyle. Now there is proof that it works. Even better, no government assistance was required.

His tough-love approach is one that works to motivate people to take responsibility for their actions. Participants start by sweeping the streets. A completed week then brings cards redeemable for food. Ten consecutive weeks brings greater incentives and rewards. For those who don’t miss a week, they can, during the course of a year, get help with medical and dental problems and even see a $3,000 bank account opened in their name while being provided with safe housing and help getting a real job.

Of course, sweeping streets would be considered beneath the dignity of the welfare recipients I've met and the government has supported them in that view for years, so changing the perception that taking care of yourself is less dignified than lying around getting a hand out will certainly be a battle. How do you teach value to someone who has never earned anything?

Then there is the problem of politicians who rely on the votes bought with their redistributionist policies. Voting them out is not so easy, the bread and circuses voters are too prevalent now. Will we really have to wait for collapse to start over?