Welfare Hurts

And not just in the United States...article in the Sydney Morning Herald out of Australia that discusses a recent study conducted down under on the effects of chronic welfare dependency. The results are still more compelling evidence that liberal good intentions do little to help the individual:

Where families had been on welfare for at least six years, the young people were almost three times as likely to have been suspended from school at some time, compared with young people with no family welfare history. About 20 per cent had a history of being late for school compared with fewer than 10 per cent of the more advantaged. They were less likely to be in classes for the gifted and talented and more likely to be in remedial classes.

By the age 18 about 65 per cent of those with no family welfare history were studying compared with just over 40 per cent of the welfare group; and more than 30 per cent of those from fortunate backgrounds were at university compared with about 12 per cent of the disadvantaged group.

Big differences were apparent in rates of depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use. To the researchers' surprise, almost 45 per cent of the less advantaged group had suffered asthma compared with 27 per cent of the better off.

But conservatives have known this for a long time...so have the statist leftists. Problem is, conservatives actually want to help those less fortunate by providing opportunities for them to work and have the dignity and self-worth that comes from that. Liberals love dependents - it's a guaranteed voting bloc. The old adage of "teaching a man to fish" rather than giving him a fish...or in liberal parlance, giving the man someone else's fish.

Consider these facts and then mull on the implications of providing socialized medicine. Flannery O'Connor was right: "if we are not ruled by faith, then we are ruled by compassion and that compassion leads to the gas chamber."