The New Ideas Blog

I used to argue against government welfare programs on moral grounds. My reasoning? Here’s the short version: If you don’t have the right to take my money to pay your bills, you don’t gain that right by having a government do it for you. Now I tend to favor limited welfare because survival is a higher value than my right to keep all of my money. But there’s another reason to be critical of welfare programs: They don’t work very well. Welfare that works should not just feed people, but help them to feed themselves.

I come from a background that not only included a very low income for years, but also included (more…)