Begging without the Stigma

When did assistance become entitlements? How does a society manufacture enough bureaucracy and create enough programs to remove the shame from begging? Well, I'm not sure even the internet has the capacity for all the departmentalized details of the process, but I do assure you the difference between process and progress has become very obvious. We don't actually know how much red tape it takes just to start tying everyone's hands, because it starts out so simply, usually as help following some sort of disaster or calamity. People are in a very fragile place at that point. They are living in a situation that they never invisioned themselves being, and so . . . they need help. Now, it all starts innocently, and builds. First, the problem itself is determined to have been unforseeable and unpreventable. I hesitate to agree with that, but for the sake of space, I won't pursue that train of thought right now. Second, the assistance is only temporary. Now let's consider this in any organization or society. This is where the cycle begins. There is something that breaks or weakens people when they have to ask for help. And there is something that becomes powerful in those that offer help. And thus, the birth of an assistance program. And then there is the perpetuation of the assistance. Either the problem becomes less temporary or the number of those needing asistance, increases. And that is where the slippery slope begins to blur and all hope of ever gaining balance or stability is lost. And since we can go to nice private offices and hear people tell us that it isn't begging, and "no need to be ashamed, that 's what they are there for." The assistance is then well on it's way to redifinition: entitlement. I cannot tell you the number of people that ask for help, expect assistance, that tell me how much they have accomplished, so they are [entitled?]. And how many times do we hear someone discussing, I paid into it, so I shouldn't feel bad for taking it. And you know, the way our country lives, we are generous, sometimes with our own things, but always with someone else's. I see a direct correlation between the disobedience to Scripture and the need for government programs. I mean we didn't even have Social Security until the great depression, and we didn't have the great depression until after the roaring 20's. And we didn't have WIC and medicaid until after the sexual revolution of the 60's and 70's. And if anyone could run the pencil and crunch the numbers, what is the relationship to farm subsidies and commodities and food banks? There used to be these things called food stamps, for people who couldn't afford to feed their families. Then they changed the whole system to something they called a "dignity card." It looks like a credit card, so nobody in line knows who is paying with what . . . Well, now people can have both dignity cards and credit cards. How does someone that cannot afford food qualify for a credit card? Now, I know things can happen out of our control. People do suffer traumas and crises, but those are singular events, not social lifestyles. When did social dependency become a career of choice? And if all the programs cease, which we already know, the programs that are not abused and truly needed, will be the first to be cut. Then we have to look at another part of the picture. How many jobs have been created to process all this red tape and facilitate the assistance programs? So is the red tape required to hold a society securelt and if so how much red tape does it take to tie this all together? And do we know where the red tape becomes bureaucratic bondage? At any rate, to eliminate the stigma of begging, it must simply be wrapped in tons of paperwork and have a pretty bow tied of red tape.

to tend to your own business, and to work with your own hands