Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Practical Measures to Escape From Poverty

"As for poverty, no one need be ashamed to admit it: the real shame is in not taking practical measures to escape from it." 
- from Pericles' funeral oration in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War

My college freshman daughter sent me this quote, thinking I would appreciate it.  I do.  The thing that struck me most was, "what would the average person today think it means to take practical measures to escape from poverty?"

Am I naive, or would the first reaction of a large swath of our society today be to look for a handout? And if they have more ingenuity, perhaps study the relationship between handouts to make sure they maximize their net take? Or, if they are even more sophisticated, organize a lobbying campaign to increase handouts? 

The slickest of all might even capitalize on the organized efforts and run for public office so they can control the distribution of handouts.

Humans, naturally (and without due regard for eternity) act so as to receive as much as possible in exchange for the least amount of effort. And by and large, have you noticed that the ones who cry loudly, "no, we are our brother's keeper and public policy should reflect that!" are those who will get something for nothing by such a policy, or be in the position of deciding who gets something for nothing.  

This leaves me suspicious.