For the majority of this country's existence, Social Security didn't exist. Neither did the welfare state. Charity and churches did just fine with handling poverty.
When people voluntarily share resources, that's great. When it's coerced by government, it's tyranny.
Your posts are tremendously articulate and I can tell that you are very well versed in the economic model you believe is best.
You are, however, apparently willing to accept a certain level of dire, life-threatening poverty which I, and I believe most people of good will, Christian and non-Christian, would be unwilling to accept.
Is it not naive to say "charity and churches did just fine with handling poverty" when 700 million people in the world live on less than $1.90 a day?
Is it not naive to say that even in the U.S. when:
34 million, including 9 million children, are food insecure, and 54% of Americans visited a food pantry for assistance last year?
Hunger in America | Feeding America
Almost 600,000 are homeless, and the problem is growing.
Homeless in America
19% of Americans have been contacted by collection agencies due to inability to pay medical bills, and 50% of bankruptcies are due to medical bills.
What church do you attend? We have a "society of downtown churches" that are organized to help people. In the case of utilities, for example, they run out of cash by the first week of the month.
Do you know why churches and charities "did just fine" in previous centuries?
Because ignorance is bliss! We lacked the sophisticated communications we have today, so we just didn't know!
For the first 70 or 80 years of our nation's history, for example, we had slavery. Where were the churches and charities in the South then?
I am old enough to remember my parents' stories about the depression. My mother always told a story about how she was accepted into a free NYC university and went because she couldn't get a job. When she graduated, she and her family walked to the graduation ceremony to save the nickel the subway would have cost so that they could buy ice cream cones--for the first time in years.
My grandpa was an immigrant who married late in life. His successful brother (until he lost it all in the depression) gave him a small railroad apartment house he managed, and he had three tenants. During the depression, none could pay rent, but he let them stay because they were his friends and he said, "no one else could be a paying renter either." There was a huge Catholic church across the street, and they were faithful parishioners, but they weren't "helping" because too many people needed help, and too few people had enough money to contribute.
Now it is virtually impossible not to see the poverty all around us. The world is crying for help, and immigrants and refugees are beating down doors in every prosperous nation in the world.
Your economic model doesn't work.
Your idea that charities and churches were sufficient is untrue.
The 1% wealthiest own 50% of the world's wealth. Shrugging your shoulders and turning your back isn't enough.
en.wikipedia.org
You are not convincing most of us (thank God!), however articulate you may be.
Color me "too kind to be convinced and too aware to turn my back."
www.forbes.com
