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03/17/10
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January
27, 2005 The socialists tell us that there are millions of Americans who go to bed hungry, live hopeless lives of "grinding poverty", etc., asserting loudly that it is all because the "rich" are not willing to help them enough - and must be taxed ever more to provide for these "disadvantaged". So we have endless "programs", taxes, laws and regulations to help these people, yet there don't ever seem to be fewer of them. Unfortunately, any evaluation of the results is only seen in terms of doing more of the same because they are not willing to look at the root causes and accept the truth about human nature. I belong to a local group of people called "Good Neighbors". We work together to privately help the poor, those misplaced by something like a house fire, people stranded in our town, the elderly with no relatives, etc. We try to make sure they have sought help in every other way first, and since our resources are very limited, we must carefully screen out the professional moochers. We don't accept any government grants or other commodities, but we are forced to refer many callers to the various government programs. Most of our callers are on one or more of these programs already. Unfortunately, private donations are getting ever harder to find because people are already squeezed between increasing taxes and prices, with few getting any raise in income. They say they "pay their taxes", and expect the government to take care of these people with it. In many cases, laws and regulations make private help impossible, and instead of gratitude for help, many recipients are demanding and resentful because they can't get everything they think they need. They have come to believe that they are somehow entitled to whatever they want and resent any suggestion that they might do something to help themselves. Let me show you just one example of why this is a big part of the problem, and why government "charity" doesn't work. I recently met a widowed woman *, now 64, who had taken an early Social Security retirement. She had arthritis, partly the result of a severe injury when she was younger, and type II diabetes. She is able to walk without assistance and has no other serious limiting physical problems. She says she used to be a book keeper and must have earned a fair wage at some point because she gets more from SS than many people who do not retire early. Unfortunately, she didn't save anything and made no provision on her own for retirement. She has family members living in a nearby city who help sometimes when they can. She had a car a few years ago, but when she was unable (or unwilling?) to pay the repair bill, it was eventually sold and she was left without transportation. She insists that it was "stolen", but the police were evidently uninterested. It will be impossible for her to get another vehicle, since the combination of purchase price, license, insurance and fees will be out of reach with her limited income. She is receiving county paid "In-Home Supportive Services", 20 hours a week, which is supposed to help her with housekeeping, transportation and other things she can't do for herself. Click the link to see the specific program for the area in which she lives. Other programs may differ. She must find someone to provide these services, "supervise" them, and find someone else if she is not satisfied with the help. Many people who are eligible for this service are simply not capable of doing this, and family members step in where possible. Family Caregiver Support is another, overlapping agency and service that helps those with families willing and able to provide direct care, but who want financial and other support for doing so. In severe cases, the county social worker will direct these services, but the size of their case loads makes it difficult to impossible for them to really oversee any one person's care in any detail. This leaves the frail and senile elder prey for scum who seldom provide any "services" at all, and often intimidate the elder with threats of harm if they are "fired". Many times the senior must be willing to suffer the abuse in order to get any help at all. Anyone who has ever dealt with "Adult Protective Services", another overlapping program, knows the frustration of trying to help elders in bad situations. APS can't solve the problems, usually, but the laws and restrictions effectively prevent anyone else from really helping either, even when they are strictly voluntary. The liability is simply too great for most productive people to risk in this lawsuit happy era. The scum don't have anything, so they are immune from lawsuits and usually immune from the laws against abuse too because the elders dare not or cannot prosecute them. The laws and APS demand it be reported, but they usually do nothing about it when all is said and done. This person has a hard time finding anyone who will provide even basic transportation, but shows no signs of being disabled to the point of needing any other kind of help. Unfortunately, she also shows no signs of trying to help herself. Her rented trailer is simply filthy, with clothing and trash strewn everywhere. She has many cats, and the overflowing litter pans add an incredible malodor to the general squalor. Her personal body odor is somewhere between used cat litter and human feces. She complained that she had nothing to do but read, since her electricity was cut off a week ago and she can't watch TV anymore. She was expecting the electric to come back on soon, since "The Good Neighbors" had helped her pay her bill. Medicare bought her a glucose testing system for the diabetes, but no provision was made to teach her how to use it. While I was teaching her, she wanted to know if I'd like to have some of the test strips. She had no idea these things cost about a dollar each, and was blithely confident that the doctor would write a "slip" for more of them if she asked him. I explained to her that I would not accept them, even if I needed them, which I do not. It was all the same to her, as cost was no object. Since her medical care is "free", she has the same attitude toward all of it. Why worry about anything when it is free? Her blood glucose was also close to normal, which makes me wonder why in the world the doctor ordered a monitor in the first place. She is not taking insulin, only oral medication. Medicare used to provide these machines only to insulin dependent patients, but the guidelines have obviously been greatly relaxed. Unfortunately, measuring blood glucose is a waste of time and money unless the patient is both willing and able to follow a good diet and exercise program to control blood sugar. Good diet and exercise, with significant weight loss, is often all that is required to control the disease without any medication at all. I've been sent out, as a home health nurse, to teach this program to a great many people. Not one in ten will make the least effort to follow even a very liberal diet plan, and most will not make any effort at all to exercise. They fully expect to take a pill or a shot to control the blood sugar and merrily go on eating and doing whatever they want. Then they are outraged with the medical profession when they develop the complications of long term uncontrolled blood sugar: glaucoma and blindness, kidney failure and constant infections which often lead to the loss of their legs. Many times they will then be motivated to work on their diet, but it is usually too late. The damage to their body is already done. I took this lady with me on my next shopping trip. We went to a store where she had some things on "lay-away" and wanted to cancel it to get her money back. It was the end of the month and she was broke, but had $60. paid into the lay-away. It seemed evident that she did this a lot and considered it to be like a savings account. She was angry when they made a $10. charge to cancel the lay-away (there was some time limit involved), completely unaware that this is a service that probably costs the store a lot more than that to warehouse the items and do all the paperwork associated with it. She had a rather shabby package of underwear she said her sister had sent her. They were the wrong size. She took them to the return desk and I was amazed that they gave her money for them since she didn't have a receipt. That is the store's fault, and only encourages such abuse. She then proceeded to fill her cart with several hundred dollars worth of merchandise. When she got to the check stand, she kept the entire line waiting while she picked through it all and had the poor clerk ring up one subtotal after another, deleting some things and adding others until everyone else in line was ready to strangle her. Either she had no idea how to figure out what she could get with the limited money she had, or she was too lazy to bother. She obviously did not care how much all this cost the store (and ultimately the customers) or how much it inconvenienced other shoppers. Just as an example, she bought a package of 8 small batteries. Later she told me it was for a clock she had just been given. I told her that the battery in the clock would be good for at least a year, and all of these new batteries would be in poor shape by then too. That was OK, she said, she could take them back next time. Then we went to the grocery store, which had been our main objective. I didn't know how she was going to get anything since she had spent all her money at the first store, but she filled her cart again and I was cringing in anticipation of another long, drawn out episode at the check stand. But this time she blithely put everything on the counter and calmly wrote a check. She had told me she had nothing left, so when I asked about it gently she told me she would just call her sister who would put something in the bank to cover it! Since these checks clear almost immediately these days, I fully expect she will have an overdraft charge to deal with on top of everything, even if her sister kicks in with the funds. Otherwise, it will all come out of her next check, automatically deposited, and she will start the next month seriously short, but I doubt she will consider the real reason for it and will blame the store or her sister. When we unloaded the groceries, she had to put the meat, cheese, milk and vegetables into ice chests with ice she had bought. Her electric had been cut off the week before. She had far more perishable food than the ice chests would hold, but she didn't seem to worry about it and said she'd eat sandwiches to use up the lunch meat fast. She had plenty of cookies, soda and chips to go with them. When asked about the high sugar items, she assured me she only had 'a little' and it was OK. So much for a diabetic diet, and I suspect that at least half of those perishable things will go to feed the cats because they will spoil, even if the electricity is restored. She wasn't worried about it at all because, as she said, her "checks" come in on the 3rd of the month and then she'll have plenty of money! This, of
course is only a small part of the story. The dear, sweet lady has absolutely
no common sense, no idea how to conserve her money, of the need to prioritizing
her purchases, the cost of her actions to others, or the effect of her
choices on her own life. She is also fiercely "independent"
and not interested in hearing anything that would really help her. She
is "independent" because she can lean on (and legally steal
from) other people left and right, without cost or obligation to her in
any way. All of the "help" has made her a mental and social
cripple, with no incentive to learn or change. What conclusions have you come to in all this? Is more money the answer? More laws? More "help"? It all goes down a black hole with no bottom because there is no incentive for these people to help themselves and use what they have intelligently or responsibly. They have been led to believe they have a "right" to all this "help", and those who pay for it do not have any way to hold anyone accountable for how their money is spent. Those of us who would like to see this lady restored to health and dignity are condemned as "heartless" and cruel because we want her to be responsible for herself and use what she has wisely before we "help" her any more. There is no reason why she could not, except for the siren song of government that tells her she has a "right" to the property and time of other people. That makes her blind and deaf to anything that would truly be in her own best interest. What a shame - what a crime. The "poor" are given money and things without real limit or accountability, with the one solid provision that they must remain "poor" to continue to get it! What a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Without cost and accountability, "need" is limitless and cannot be satisfied. Without the incentive of survival, there is no reason to work or save or care what happens to other people. Charity must start with a realistic understanding of human nature and the fact that not everyone is worthy of our charity. Please read this excerpt from "The Tragedy of American Compassion" to understand the working of private charity compared to government handouts. It is not long, and well worth reading. Jesus told us that it is "more blessed to give than to receive." Giving is a free will act of love and charity, person to person. It has nothing to do with theft. God says "You shall not steal." I've seen with my own eyes the evil done with stolen goods in the name of giving to "the poor". It produces only destruction and despair. St. Paul said clearly that those who will not work should not eat. Jesus also said, "the poor you will always have with you." He understood human nature perfectly. *Please note that this example was composed out of my experience with hundreds of people and any resemblance to a specific person is not intentional.
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The Valley of the Shadow of Death Free State Project - What is going on? The Meltdown of Western Medicine part 1 The High Cost of Medicine part 2 Don't look now (is it already too late?) Part 3 Take Charge To Get The Best From Your Health Care Providers Send Government Bureaucrats A "Termination Notice" Is Government Necessary? A Letter To The Editor Medication "Abuse" - By Government
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