Ben Franklin: The Best Way to Do Good to the Poor

I came across this a day or two ago and it gives some thought-provoking insight that makes you think from a mind that is far better than mind.  It is wisdom and counsel that shines the brightest when set against the dark backdrop of Obama’s Jobs Bill Plan, and our own country’s addiction to welfare.

 

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer . . . In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty."

~ Benjamin Franklin