From: doctor1@cbnewse.cb.att.com (patrick.b.hailey)
Subject: Re: Libertarian Social Darwinism
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 08:47:17 GMT

>It doesn't matter what libertarians believe: there are a huge number of other
>people out there, who (if placed in a libertarian system) would gleefully
>watch other people starve while mouthing "the world doesn't owe them a living"

Yep, it's those "other people" again.

Americans are the most charitable people on earth.  Year after year after
year.  I didn't even cut the newspaper story out this year; it's old
news.

We know that, on the average, 90% (very round figure, I don't even remember
where it comes from, it's another one of those 'old news' constants) of 
money given to private charity goes to the people the charity is supposed
to help.  Something like 50% of the money earmarked for welfare, food
stamps, and so on ever gets to the people those programs are intended to
help.  It goes to the (generally) well-educated, (generally) middle-class
government employees that administer the programs.

[Sorry about the round, approximate numbers up there, it's been a while
since I looked into this stuff deeply.  They're pretty close, though.]

If the most charitable people on earth got to keep more than 50%+ of their
income, I have no doubt they would increase their charitable giving.
Comparing 50% overhead to 10% overhead, we see that they could keep a good
deal of their tax break and still leave the world better off.

Furthermore, they would give to charities that they percieve as working.
When they saw a third generation of underclass living off of a charity,
they would probably figure that that charity was doing something real
wrong, and they'd shift their giving to some charity that seemed to be
doing a better job.

I am one libertarian and LP member that came to where I am out of concern
for people.

My girlfriend is a Christian.  Not the Jerry Falwell-loving, far-right,
hate-spewing brand, but the real bible-believing kind.  Her parents are
missionaries in Brazil, and she was raised on the mission campus there. 
She's been all over South America, counseling prostitutes, working in soup
kitchens, passing out medicine, consoling parents whose kids died for the
lack there of.  She's been beaten, robbed, and raped for her trouble.

Say what you like about me, but she's *not* a libertarian because she doesn't
care.  She's a libertarian because she *does* care, because she sees what
government 'charity' (amongst other things) does to people.

We're not in the drug legalization movement because of what prohibition does
to our pocketbooks, but because drug deaths and drug addiction rates go up
with the drug penalties, and because the government-manufactured drug hysteria
has most of America *giving* their rights away.  We're not against the minimum
wage because we want to exploit people, but because it denies the least
skilled, most wretched among us a chance to grab that lower wrung and start
pulling themselves up.  We don't spend several hours *every day* and at least
$50 a month on political activities and outreach because we want to sit on
our butts and keep what's ours, the rest of the planet be damned.

Say we're *mistaken* in our beliefs.  Fine.  But I'm getting a little tired 
of hearing how we're selfish and don't give a damn.  If that were the case,
I'd be relaxing in front of the TV.  I'd be reading alt.folklore.urban or
rec.humor.  I'd take a vacation.  I'd get some rest.  But I don't have time
for any of those things.  There is much too much to do.

   Thanks awfully,
             Patrick

Newsgroups: alt.politics.libertarian