How can we help?

Part 1 of this series can be found here.

In the last post of this series, I asked what made Adam Shepard different from the working poor who, despite working diligently and exercising discipline over their spending, were unable to improve their lot in life.

Today, I want to think about what we can do to help. I believe that the current system has some serious problems^[a].

• We give money to those in need. This encourages a small subset of the population to abuse the system (“Hey, free money! Now I can spend this on [some luxury in lieu the basic needs it was intended to cover]“), which wastes money that could be going to more deserving individuals (either members of the working poor who are actually trying to improve their lots in life, or the people who actually earned the money in the first place). Encouraging the abuse of the system also has a much more detrimental effect — it tarnishes the image of those who are genuinely trying to get out of their current situation. One bad apple spoils the bunch, so to speak.
• We punish those who are trying to improve their lot in life I’ve had this come up a few times in discussions with individuals who have a more liberal bent than me. There are a number of people who receive government assistance who stay on it because trying to get off of it makes their situation worse. If they earn too much, they lose their government assistance, and their situation actually gets worse because they’re trying to improve it.

Do you agree that the current system needs fixed? How would you fix it^[b]? I’ll post my answer tomorrow.

1. I’m only listing two here, because I think these are two of the three biggest problems. The third biggest problem is the topic of tomorrow’s post. [↩]
2. For anyone with a Conserv-atarian bent who would like to answer, assume that the government is going to do this regardless — what’s the best way to fix it [↩]