(My pencil doesn't have a spellchecker...So, as they say, sue me.)Sez the fat man from his leafy 'burbs: "Welfare traps people and poverty and private charity can do the job better". Do what job better? Trapping people in poverty? The fat man sees a magical difference between high taxes on one hand, and low wages wages and high prices on the other. He sees a magical difference between work done by the government and work done by (even larger) corporations. Though it seems like magic to most of us, the difference is there: the fat man gets fat off of corporate government, not federal.
Despite Carnagie's spending on libraries, the "front-line" of charity work is done by those a paycheck or two away from poverty themselves. While the occasional member of the middle class will snap out of their apathy and spend a few hours of Christmas vacation time in hopes of some karma - much like a rear-line staff officer might drive within a few miles of the battle and recommend himself for a medal.
Let's not even mention the politicians who will wash a plate or two in front of the cameras while talking about the necessary price of progress, which (if it exists) he's never paid a penny of.
In the recession of 1981 Canada's first food bank (since the depression) opened as desperate reaction to the emergency. As the "good times rolled", it didn't shut down, in fact by 1990, when we could afford to send a squadron of fighter-bombers across the world, there were about 300 food banks (not including the Salvation Army and independents) with 1, 850, 000 people desperate enough to accept the humiliation of depending on them.
Responsibility
Charity switches the responsibility (a liability) away from authority to whoever is most willing to pay - those who may need it tomorrow.
(My pencil doesn't have a spellchecker...So, as they say, sue me.)
And what do you suppose people get at food banks anyway? Well-balanced meals bursting with nutrients? Not quite. Ever wondered what happens to food when it passes its sell-by date?
So here's your welfare queens, with a royal feast of the moldy, stale, and generally undesirable. Take a look at what's in your local food bank - chances are there will be ten jars of relish for every tin of tuna. Next week it will be ten containers of kool-whip, or something else with as much nutritional value as Dan "it's a poverty of values" Quayle's brain.
But the total humiliation of depending on charity, and the fact that what you're eating consists basically of industry's shit, just isn't enough incentive! We need the outright terrorism of needing to work to survive!
Pseudo-charity
If charity isn't pathetic enough, the middle-class can always gain karma by paying for nonsense like band uniforms. If that feels too much like sacrilege to the gods of self-interest, one can scratch the moral itch with Girl-Guide cookies.