Derivations on a Theme - Personal Shortcomings As Public Policy

I am really impressed with the writings of Rania Khalek at Missing Pieces. In yesterday's post, In America Being Poor is a Criminal Offense, Khalek discusses the various state legislatures who have passed or are close to passing what could be termed as "preemptive" legislation targeted solely at the poor.

In at least 30 state Legislatures across America, predominately wealthy politicians are quite impressed with themselves for considering bills that would limit the meager amount of state help given to needy families struggling to make ends meet. Many have proposed drug testing with some even extending it to recipients of other public benefits as well, such as unemployment insurance, medical assistance, and food assistance, in an attempt to add more obstacles to families’ access to desperately needed aid...

She then goes on to highlight several of these states and to show the perniciousness of the legislation involved.

For me, the key point of her post is summed up in the following paragraph.

This is rather shocking because I can’t recall any Republicans or Democrats demanding that the CEO of Bank of America or JP Morgan disclose inventory of their vacation homes, private jets, and yachts before bailing them out in what amounts to corporate welfare. Nor did they insist that these CEOs submit to alcohol and drug screenings before receiving taxpayer money. No objections were made regarding the immigration status of the people running these companies or whether they happen to employ undocumented workers for cheap labor...

I always have had a strong dislike for the idea that personal shortcomings are tied solely to a person's economic standing. For years, many people have complained that poor people are lazy as if the latter naturally leads to the former!

Laziness is a personality trait that spans economic class, ethnicity, gender and age. While there is no question in my mind that there are people of limited financial means who indeed are lazy, there are a good many wealthy individuals who are just as lazy. History is filled with males and females who inherited great wealth and then frittered their lives away, some in a most hedonistic fashion!

So often, many in the general public view the issue of drug abuse as the poor person's problem. Statistics don't bear this out. People from all walks of life have succumbed to the bottle, the crack pipe or the needle.

There are people out there who will grant that these personality traits do, in fact, span the gamut of individuals in our society, but they reason that the public shouldn't have to bear the expense of those who live in poverty. Rich people, they declare, can afford to engage in destructive behavior and the rest of us don't have to foot the bill.

Really? We provide them with the same roads to drive on, the same fire department to put out their fires and the same basic infrastructure that makes modern life livable. We grant them tax breaks out the wazoo, bailouts when they screw up and all sorts of subsidies and loan guarantee programs.

In actuality, we provide so much more in public funds to rich ne'er-do-wells than we do to poor ones, yet we bitch and moan only about the latter!!