[saden1]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

I believe that some people perceive that the "government is not the solution, it's the problem" crowd has an oppressive, people be damned mentality. But, speaking at least for myself, that is not the case. These programs that help "show people the way", are undoubtedly important. But I believe it should be exactly, to show them the way so they can go it alone next time (or sometime in the future). It's akin to the "buy a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach him to fish and he'll eat for life" mantra. I understand though, that for some people they will never be in position to go it alone. But I believe, perhaps naively, those cases are not as frequent nor as numerous as we tend to think.

These people are 36.5 million strong according to the latest Census Bureau numbers (p. 19). Right now they're having to make decision whether to eat or put gas in the tank and while you and I can go to the grocery store and buy what we want they are increasingly unable to afford basic food (28 million Americans on food stamps).