Friday, May 27, 2011

I am for doing good to the poor, but...

Benjamin Franklin, the sage of an amazing group of people who founded America, wrote the following in 1766 which is still relevant today for everyone everwhere. This is from an article he wrote for a London newspaper regarding the price of corn and the management of the poor.
I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

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