Contrarian View From the Pew: Duck

If it looks like a duck, and if it quacks like a duck, more often than not...it's a duck. The ONE Campaign sure looks like a big fat global welfare quacker to me.

Once again, good intentions seem to be getting the best of common sense. Welfare doesn’t decrease poverty; never has and never will. How can we expect God to bless a government program that conflicts with the eighth commandment? Stealing from some in order to give to others is still stealing. Government sanctioned stealing is no more moral than putting on a black suit and visiting your neighbor in the middle of the night.

The best way to reduce poverty is to increase freedom; not reduce freedom by placing a greater burden on tax payers and workers around the world. Do people never learn, or is this just more proof that most people care more about how they are perceived by others than they care about the truth? Good intentions sometimes leads to disastrous results when the good intentions are not accompanied by effective methods. There is a real danger that poverty, AIDS, and dependence will all be increased in Africa with this proposal just like poverty and dependence were increased in America during welfare’s heyday.

There are sensible, effective, and moral methods we can use to decrease global poverty, though. First and foremost, we should open the borders of the United States to more immigration. Some of the money immigrants earn in the United States will make it’s way back to the immigrant’s country of origin where it will help to increase economic opportunities. We should also reduce taxes across the board in the United States which would increase investments in under-developed countries, and also increase spending in America on goods imported from other countries.

Freedom is a time tested method for reducing poverty and improving lives. Welfare is a black hole that destroys families and increases poverty. We should be promoting freedom, not welfare.