Liberalism, atheism, male sexual exclusivity linked to IQ

[HappySqurriel]

ManusJustus said:

HappySqurriel said:

After reading this debate on charitable donations and volunteerism and how it relates to political ideology I can’t help but think that you all have this relationship completely backwards. There is a certain group of people who hold the personal value of charity in very high regard, and it is one of their defining characteristics; and from a very young age they tend to have been volunteering their time and donating their money to charities. Quite often the charities they choose to support are those that are designed to help the same people that many people who (supposedly) are liberals claim to exclusively care for; and this tends to give them first hand experience with the problems, and with how ineffective or detrimental government solutions are.

Consider someone who joined the Big-Brothers & Big Sisters club to be a mentor for a child. Now, the child they’re mentoring comes from a single parent family where the mother is on welfare and is a drug addict. While the combination of subsidized rent and financial support should be able to provide her and her child with a poor but adequate lifestyle while giving the mother the opportunity to train and find a decent job, with the exception of money for basic survival every dime is going to feeding the mother’s drug habit; and when that money isn’t enough she turns tricks, or uses her government-subsidized drug plan to scam prescription-narcotics to sell on the street, in order to get the money she needs. To what extent do you think that this person would think that welfare was a really good system?

The consequence of taking financial support from the mother would further harm the child.  No one would argue that the current system is perfect, but the problem is that people can't think of anything better.  I, for one, would rather pay to keep that mother and her child in a house while supporting her selfish acts rather than to put the mother and child on the street, or I would argue for the removal of the child from the mother's care.  As a liberal, I also advocate birth control so that children aren't born into such a mess, whereas conservatives would argue against birth control, and some even forbiding its use.

I asked the same thing from someone else, and I'll ask it again.  Please provide me of an example where a private charity could do a better job than the governmetn at bettering the lives of the mother and child you mentioned, and the millions and millions of others just like him.

Abortion is not birth control, and I doubt that you could demonstrate any statistics that a significant enough percentage of people who identify as conservatives don't support birth control.

At the last food drive from my local food bank they included an information pamphlet and it basically said that any money donated to the food bank tended to produce 5 times the quantity of food as buying it in your store and donating the items. The reason for this is simple, the food bank gets food at (roughly) cost from manufacturers and entirely cuts out the middle men, the building they’re in has been donated, and the labour they use is free.

As for what charity would help the woman ... No one charity would help the woman, it would likely be a collection of a variety of charities that took care of her and her child; and it is very unlikely that they would continue to provide support if they found out that the help they were giving her was being so grossly misused. There are many charities that provide low cost (or free) housing for disadvantaged people, there are charities that can provide food and clothing, there are charities that help with school supplies, there are charities that help with drug rehab, and there are charities that help with medical care; and most of these charities would see increased support to the extent that they could easily replace government involvement if the government stopped meddling.