Our Responsibility to Those in Need

From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@MSX.UPMC.EDU)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 18:02:29 MDT

Lee Corbin wrote:

That should be your choice. Not all people think or feel as you do. Why
should they be literally forced to yield up their money? This question,
often posed in the libertarian slogan "never initiate the use of force"
has been repeatedly mentioned on this forum. Of all the people here who
favor government action, only the person you were responding to above,
namely Rafal Smigrodzki, MD-Phd, has by coincidence said anything at all
about this maxim.

###It looks like I have the middle ground in the debate, between Olga on one
side, and most everybody else on the other (or does it just make me a
"moderate extremist" in this particular forum?).

So on one side I say some people "should they be literally forced to yield
up their money?", because those who would let someone drop dead, rather than
give a little of their own, are mean, uncharitable, (I think none of them
are on this list) and deserve to lose some cash (a pure gut feeling, not a
reasoned position).

On the other side I agree with Lee and Brian that giving too much tends to
breed dependence, and the best love is harsh love (for bums, I mean).

Part of the above sentence sounds funny and equivocal...well, I have to go
home now, I'll leave it as is. 

----
As cruel as it sounds at first, as uncaring as it appears (and is,
actually), this is the best solution.  Sooner or later, except in
a few cases, the drifter will drift into some small town, and get
an extremely low paying job, merely because all his alternatives
are worse.  (Naturally, today such an option isn't available because
of the minimum wage laws, and the fact that today's vagrants have
been tolerated for so long, that the reform of any particular one
of them is highly unlikely.)
#### My other post (about "poorhouses") touches on the issues you mention
here. I'll wait with my answer until I know what you think about it.
And yes, the minimum wage laws are a bad mistake.
Rafal Smigrodzki MD-PhD
Dept Neurology University of Pittsburgh
smigrodzkir@msx.upmc.edu

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