Our critique isn't 'if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it'. It's 'if you don't work for it, you don't deserve it'. We want to make sure that everyone is taken care of, but we really desire that it's done in the least invasive way possible to the liberty of everyone.
Our focus is certainly on personal responsibility first, and community responsibility next. 'Passing the buck' to others for the conduct of welfare, which includes the government to take care of the community is very abhorrent, as it does lead to inefficency....The government has no volunteers. Private charities do.
The 'ideal' form is that the individual takes care of themselves and their family. They contribute with time & income in charity work for welfare, rather than pass the buck to someone else, or mandate it from the legislature. If there is no one to help said poor....Then it's OK for the government to get involved, but it should never, in any case, be the first place to go, or seek to reward bad behavior. The American war on poverty (by incorporating welfare) makes about as much sense as the war on drugs (by making them illegal)....As they don't seek to change the individual's mentality, but try to simply sweep the underlying problem under the rug.
Mesoteo said it best...We don't want to give a hand out. We want to give a hand up. 'Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime' - we prefer to help people conduct themselves with dignity and respect for themselves. If they do not wish to help even themselves, then it's hard for us to find the motivation for them to be helped.
That is the cry of a libertarian/conservative mindset when it comes to government control over the welfare of it's people. It must be an advocate of the solution(s), but not the solution in and of itself, because it leads to more government control over the lifestyle and liberty of it's people.
A few selected quotes on government intervention:
'A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have' Gerald R. Ford (alluding to a Thomas Jefferson quote)
“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” (Thomas Jefferson)
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" John F. Kennedy
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
Hopefully a few quotes such as that provides a good primer for some of the ideas we have.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
