In a recession and where there is lack of employment, money does not flow from the employer to the employee. Hence, a condition of poverty can be created. Solution: create more employers to cause employees/workers to receive a paycheck. Give the employers freedom to create jobs; cause schools to create job-paying skills; and create a work ethic to give job security.
Subsidies, welfare and charities should lead individuals from a condition of poverty, not perpetuate the condition. Those who proclaim to assist the poor and do not support the removal of conditions that cause poverty may border on hypocrisy. “On the Edge” (CR, Sept. 4) includes the following: “Some Catholic leaders expressed concerns about how the Ryan budget would impact the poor.” The implication is that the Ryan budget would hurt the poor, not that it can take individuals from a state of poverty to provide a better quality of life than a welfare check can give. Give a man a fish, and feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and feed him for a lifetime, but give him the freedom to be removed from poverty, then his future is infinitely secure.
Ray Bielicki
Williamsport