3 ms·

While this is excellent advice for consideration of others, it changes _nothing_ for drunk uncle or out of work cousin that there are "reasons". Maybe governme

While this is excellent advice for consideration of others, it changes _nothing_ for drunk uncle or out of work cousin that there are "reasons". Maybe government can help, depending (likely the underlying motive of the quote. i.e. promotion of social programs over "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" rhetoric). Or maybe government can not help but will try anyway at great expense and possibly make things worse. We have seen both scenarios. Thus I'm always personally suspicious of any ideology that regards government as a universal and infallible solution to all problems, and any ideology that regards government as perpetual failure at effectively and efficiently solving anything.

kergonath 6y ago
Government is a substitute for people whose social network cannot help them in hard times. It’s not perfect and it won’t solve everything, but it’s necessary because otherwise nobody will help these people. The only way to be sure not to make any mistake is to do nothing, which itself makes things worse. Whilst drunk uncle won’t be saved by the bare minimum a state can provide, he certainly will be worse off if he ends up on the streets. And sometimes all out of work cousin needs is a bit of money to pay rent and food for a couple of months until he finds some work. So yeah, a welfare program is not a panacea but it is useful, and also cheaper overall.