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Government Programs Do Not Solve Problems
You smell it before you see it. Homelessness is an epidemic in America. Stories and studies from San Francisco and Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle paint a bleak picture. Local governments have not mediated the problem. Bureaucracy tends to be slow, and its organizational structure spends more taxpayer dollars on the machinery of administration. Monies trickle down to people who are in need or the actual workers on the frontlines of homelessness. Top-down management does not work well.
But there are local groups like the Lucky Duck Foundation in San Diego combating social problems such as homelessness. For instance, the very first thing a person is given at the San Diego shelter is an ID. On the street, a homeless person may be a nobody; but in the shelter, they are somebody. Historically we know that the best kind of change is made by individuals, not government agencies. Burt Folsom’s book The Myth of the Robber Barons gives historical evidence of how individual entrepreneurialism is better than government control any day. Find the links to these two resources at the end of this Truth in Two.
The best kind of change comes from the people who must live with the problems they face. Local initiatives are the way to overcome local concerns. The book of Titus leads the way for Christian bottom-up influence. Paul tells Titus eight times in three short chapters, that believers are to “do good, do good, do good.” For those who believe the Bible, teach the bottom-up philosophy of Jeremiah 29 where God’s people are instructed to “seek the welfare of the city where God has sent you.” And for those who don’t believe the Bible, give them a copy of Burt Folsom’s book.
It is a good reminder just after Labor Day: the best change, the best help you could ask for, comes bottom-up. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeing Truth wherever it’s found. [First published at MarkEckel.com]
AFTERWORD LINKS
Nordlinger, Jay. “Angels in San Diego,” National Review 29 May 2023, pp. 18-20.
Lucky Duck Foundation, San Diego
Folsom, Burt. The Myth of the Robber Barons.
Published in General
Maybe that’s the theory of Trickle-Down Economics that actually exists. Thomas Sowell’s been looking for it on the right, but it was a lefty idea all along: If the government throws enough money at bureaucracy, eventually some of it will trickle down to the people.
I don’t think the left intends any leaking of taxpayer money from the pockets of their friends and family in “management” to actual needy citizens. Best to eliminate the government middlemen and do it one’s self.
Solving problems means the problem solvers aren’t needed anymore . . .
There are problems solved, or at least improved, by government action.
This is obvious from things as simple as traffic lights and regulations, seat belt requirements, and trespass laws.
Thinking that government cannot do anything useful is incorrect empirically, and is anarchism as an ideological matter.
There certainly is an important and legitimate role for government in our society and our lives. I don’t think anybody here and now is disputing that. As Christians, we have a moral obligation to live at peace, and to seek the betterment of the country and culture in which we find ourselves. Hence @markeckel‘s reference to Jeremiah 29.
But that’s not the issue here. It’s when the government leaves its proper lane, and attempts to dictate our behavior apart from, and in conflict with, God’s direction for us. Then we’re faced with the question we now have before us. And here, we learn from Peter and the apostles, in Acts 5: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
And how did we get here? See Dr. Carson above. Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Well, now, how about if we create the crisis first?
Homelessness is a euphemism in America.
See Thomas Sowell’s account of his time working at the Department of Labor, in which he discovered that the people there did not actually want any information that would threaten their iron rice bowls: Better that useless or even harmful programs continue forever.