From: thomson%jensen.cs.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Rich Thomson)
Subject: Re: Is Private Charity That Effective? (was Re: "New Right" Libertarians?)
Date: 11 Jan 93 17:54:22 MST
Organization: Computer Science Department, University of Utah, SLC, UT

In article <1993Jan11.092637.7245@microsoft.com>
	leecr@microsoft.com (Lee Crocker) writes:
>  Food, shelter, medicine, all the basic necessities of life are the
>  products of work.  There is no evidenc that private charities can't
>  take care of those unable to work--indeed there is ample evidence  
>  that they do so much better than governments do.  

>In article <1is1f4INNkgg@transfer.stratus.com>
	jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
>A number of libertarian posters keep saying this.  Can somebody
>provide some of this "ample evidence."  

In article <1993Jan11.173746.4280@s1.gov>
	lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
>	I suspect that they probably can't.

Here is something that I came across the other day.  Please note that
I did *not* write any of the text below, so please don't attribute it
to me.
						-- Rich

------- Forwarded Message

Date:     Sat, 26 Dec 92 10:56:27 PST
To:       Libernet             <libernet@Dartmouth.EDU>

From:     edgar@spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
Subject:  Charity

- -----
The following was originally posted to Extropians by
Tim Starr.  Cross-posted here with permission.
======================================================
There's been a lot of talk by libertarians about charity in theory,
but a book about its practice has just been published and read by me.
It's called "The Tragedy of American Compassion," by Marvin Olasky,
and it covers the history of charity in the USA from the colonial
period until the present.

It turns out that charities have always done a better job at doing
good than Big Brother ever has.  But they had all sorts of politically
incorrect practices:  they discriminated beween those who were willing
to improve themselves and those that weren't.  They tended to give
goods and services, rather than mere money.  They tended to involve
those who were obligated to help the needy by ties of family or
community.  They tended to refuse to take on drunks or gamblers as
cases.  They relied upon volunteers, rather than paid "professional
expert social workers."

It was the leader of one of the charitable organizations of the 19th
century that came up with the idea of testing the needy's willingness
to improve themselves by having them chop wood for their supper if
they were physically able to do so.  This meme spread like wildfire.
Big Brother doesn't practice this or any other sort of
"means-testing."  The public choice school of economics has come up
with explanations for why not.

It also turns out that social workers of the early 20th century had a
very hard time increasing their total aggregate caseload; there was a
stigma attached to going on welfare, and many did it only as a last
resort.  They finally figured out a way to get rid of this during
LBJ's administration:  neighborhood agencies funded by taxes were set
up to teach the poor that it was their right and duty to claim their
fair share of the national income.  Legal services agencies were also
formed to teach them how to sue the government into giving them their
"rightful" share.  This redistribution- ist philosophy led to greatly
increased welfare rolls in the neighborhoods where it was tried, and
it was soon taught in many places across the country.

Pretty soon, the poor were rioting in the streets, convinced of their
rectitude in destroying what others had that they did not.  This has
got to be the most telling example of the power of ideas that I've
ever come across.

Tim Starr - Renaissance Now! - Think Universally, Act Selfishly
starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu

- --
edgar@spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005  Silicon Valley, Ca

------- End of Forwarded Message
-- 
		    Don't blame me; I voted Libertarian
Internet: thomson@asylum.cs.utah.edu		Rich Thomson
IRC: _Rich_					PEXt Programmer
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.sex,alt.activism