Government Help Alone Won’t Solve the Problems of Struggling People

Government Help Alone Won’t Solve the Problems of Struggling People:

• Transforming the lives of struggling people requires personal commitment and willingness to change one’s perspective—not more “free stuff.”

"...In fact, in many cases, these programs may inflict more harm than good.

Take the six “Jones” children, ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers. 

...We soon took them in, becoming foster parents.
It wasn’t easy, but they began to thrive and do well in school. We grew attached to them and sought to adopt them—but it was only then that their mother objected.
We didn’t realize that she had been getting $3,000 in government support each month, including food stamps in their name, to do something that she wasn’t doing: take care of her kids.
Instead, she spent the money on her drug and alcohol habit. 
With our nonprofit salaries, my husband and I earned too much—$23 too much—to get food stamps on their behalf. 
We’ve continued to help care for the Jones kids—including a baby who has since arrived, and whom we literally picked up off the curb at ten months old. He weighed all of ten pounds.

...So yes, we all love “free stuff.”
And government programs can be a necessary resource in our struggling communities. 
But government help alone won’t solve the problems that my neighbors face.
If it could, it would have done so long before now."
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