Demythologizing the Poor

...It won't do simply to dismiss the enemy as, fools ignorant of economic reality and caught up in blind homage to misfortune...

...There are, even now, among the poor many who have no one else but themselves to blame for their poverty...

...They are not barred from economic reality—they know of it only too well, so they avoid consideration of it like they avoid reading some updated economic history books about capitalism...

...It is not that egalitarians could not know that the poor are not all that nice, and that the rich aren't all that nasty—they do not want to know that...

...Surely if the poor included even some evil folks, the call for helping the poor would have to be modified...

...There is not a shred of evidence to support the view that the poor are any more virtuous than those not poor...

...But on the whole when people neglect their economic welfare, fail to retrain after an old job becomes obsolete, become unattentive to their own and their family's needs and wants, this is nothing to be admired...

...Kant, the supreme altruist, never sanctioned force in producing virtue...

...It has always seemed to me to follow from one's concern for some goal that effort to achieve it will be forthcoming...

...By refusing to come to terms with these facts about the opposition, the supporter of the free market may feel sophisticated and beyond petty moralism...

...Subsidies, special "rights," close ties between firms and regulatory agencies, exclusionary laws, protection from foreign competition, and the like make it possible for some to maintain economic security with no real effort other than hiring the government's widely available gun...

...Any self-respecting person of meager means would find it appalling for others to judge his moral character on grounds that he is poor...

...In almost any discussion with those who want the state to possess greater and greater power to regulate human life, the basic premise is that the poor must he helped...

...Under certain circumstances, however, it is not unjustified to suspect the poor of less than complete virtue...

...But the egalitarian does not see the logic of his dogma, so he continues advocating (and trying, once he's been given a post in the state) making the poor richer and making the rich poorer...

...Why do those businessmen, engineer dropouts, entrepreneurs, and the like, with no finesse, no sophistication, no appreciation for the nuances of language and life—why do these seem to have so much to say about what goes on in the world...

...I have in mind a marketplace where government does not interfere to restrict mobility or opportunity...

...That this dogma of the inherent virtue of the have-nots is widely propounded is unquestionable...

...This is not simply an impression one receives from the popular media...

...It is all wrong to believe that egalitarians are generally well-meaning, decent, compassionate people—if this were so, there would be no poverty anywhere, since the egalitarians everywhere would have eliminated it through sustained private, voluntary effort...

...Of course some people are helped by all such programs, even aside from the bureaucrats who run them...

...Artists, scholars, scientists, teachers, and many others could pursue values that do not show up on the GNP...

...Unlike spending money on illegal activities, there is no law to prevent one from giving half or all his wealth to another person...

...While here and there some of my egalitarian acquaintances do send off a check or two to United Way, Red Cross, and other charities, most of them send their checks to political pressure groups that help only the goal of egalitarian power...

...But millions are hurt by them...

...When it is proposed that the market be freed and there be a sustained, peaceful marathon race (not a boxing match, as most conceive of market transactions), egalitarians protest than when some get rich, they will only suppress the poor: economic liberty may last a while, but soon the successful will step on those who would challenge their stance...

...We all have our own particular conditions to contend with as moral agents...

...This is not an argument but a confession of ignorance...

...We might be told that the deserving poor should be helped...

...concerns the morality of successful businessfolks...

...Rich and poor alike must make the choices which can turn out good or bad, and poor as well as rich can neglect to make the right choices...

...Those who are concerned with restoring a free society must rigorously re-emphasize the value of liberty and the moral and economic cases for a free society...

...By now most advocates of such reforms cling to their last but highly dubious argument: by making the state even more responsible for distributing wealth, perhaps, maybe, as at least a logical possibility, things will get better...

...Clearly when the state meddles with the economy, too many folks gain unearned advantages in the business world...

...Never mind for a moment that the bulk of such federal programs as minimum-wage legislation, advocated as a means to eliminate poverty and to promote the "general well-being of workers...

...Should a poor individual do anything wrong, one is certain to find that he had to do the deed: his poverty drove him to it...

...To confer virtue on the poor because they are poor is to rob them of human dignity...

...One's economic condition has nothing to do with his moral character...

...And the action to be taken to help the poor is rarely forbidden...

...In a free society one's responsibilities tend to match one's initial circumstances—a poor man need not cope' setting up parties for foreign ambassadors, while the wealthy do not have to keep the grocery budget under close scrutiny...

...It may be trite to say, but happiness is not guaranteed by wealth, although, of course, wealth does contribute to the fulfillment of our material, biological, aesthetic, and other needs and wants...

...I have never, known of an egalitarian who actually, voluntarily practiced his own doctrine of redistribution of wealth...

...Not so much that some of them should be helped but that all of them must be helped, come hell or highwater...

...If the poor are so virtuous, and if virtue deserves support, the most appropriate support the poor could receive would have to he support for their poverty...

...My point is that when people neglect their wellbeing, permit their future to rush in while they have given it no thought, produce children but take little care to ensure their economic security, refuse to prepare for their old age, and otherwise contribute to their own poverty, it is not unreasonable to suggest that their actions betray a character flaw, moral negligence, and thus deserve no rewards at all...

...Judging by prevailing dogma, the wealthy simply cannot be deserving (except, perhaps, if the wealth came about entirely by accident and is consistently demeaned by the person struck by such cruel fortune...

...No, the point is that their concern for the poor is largely a pose and their real goal is political power...

...Secondly, all of this may miss the crucial point about the concern with thepoor...

...That will be charitable enough...

...So the poor stay poor quite independently of effort, ambition, and the like...

...Yet it will prove his world's undoing...

...When Alan Greenspan, Ford's chief economic advisor, recently remarked on the relatively huge losses suffered by Wall Street brokers in the current inflationary trends, his audience booed and jeered him roundly...

...And most newscasters never miss a chance to renounce any social or political event that contributes to the welfare and goals of the haves, while they constantly and diligently proclaim dedication and sensitivity for the cause of the have-nots...

...If we grant that being poor automatically renders someone worthy, the point of helping those in poverty has to be self-defeating...

...It does seem unjustified to lay that much stress on the lot of the poor simply because they are poor...

...Under conditions of a free market, however, it is often reasonable to suspect that those who are really destitute have neglected their own care considerably...

...Everything the poor need is accepted as their natural right, to be supplied by others without question...

...Rich and poor and in-between can all do better or worse with what they have at any point...

...Virtually all efforts to reverse America's economic tendencies toward bankruptcy are met by cries about the fate of the poor...

...There is no evidence that general political reforms have ever helped enough of the poor, even those who have deserved help, to offset the drastic harm in their wake...

...It is not that they could not know that the free market is best for the fortunate and unfortunate alike—the effort to acquire that knowledge is not made...

...For theirs would be the greatest sin: having known virtue, to leave it aside for the evil of riches...

...The politicization of charity and benevolence can only reap neglect of and hostility to those who would be made the parasites of a productive society, instead of the beneficiaries of those who have chosen to lend a helping hand...

...Another favorite argument of those who reject the free society for some well-managed state (well-managed by whom, if people in freedom are so vicious and such bunglers...

...When brokers suffer losses the bulk of the socially concerned seem to respond without the slightest care or compassion—as if people on Wall Street had no capacity for suffering and couldn't possibly deserve a helping hand...

...If it has any merit whatsoever, the poor, who on the other hand are already granted virtue, ought to avoid riches with all their might...

...Egalitarian solutions to the conditions of the unfortunate do not embody such generosity...

...Moreover, I have personally been poor, quite poor, in my life, and I have lived with others who were poor, very poor...

...Some are decent, others pretty rotten, and most just vacillate in between...

...But the notion of cutting our some federal programs aimed at helping the poor is generally considered to be criminal by the variety of people who booed and jeered Greenspan...

...It is an intellectual creed, propagated at fancy scholarly conferences...

...In the final analysis, our entire moral atmosphere needs serious revision...

...First of all, if becoming rich is a sufficient condition for becoming mean and heartless, then the poor should certainly be best off, seeing as they are the least callous...

...These people are often very bright...

...without substantially curtailing employment or earning power," hurt precisely the poor and unskilled in the marketplace...

...But from shallow calls for unlimited governmental programs to "assist" them, all the way to complex philosophical treatises on justice advocating political systems almost solely on grounds that the poor must be helped, the assumption that all of the poor deserve help is clearly evident in our culture...

...The motivation, although quite difficult to generalize, seems to be envy...

...This is also the idea in politics when theft, glorified as taxation, is justified by reference to the plight of the poor...

...I mean that welfare measures, socialization, and similar egalitarian approaches are demonstrable flops...

...Ignorance is part of the problem—but evasion is its most frequent cause...

...Even those who argue that charity is a moral duty must reject the egalitarian's approach—there cannot be anything virtuous in observing a duty because one is threatened with jail...

...But this won't do...

...And to sell the rest of the people on the fairy tale of the virtue of poverty will simply make this lamentable state of affairs continue beyond its natural course...

...And this is quite understandable—those who invoke the egalitarian arguments do not seriously believe them...

...Clearly, even in the free marketplace, poverty does not always betoken irresponsibility...

...Why should anyone contribute, even voluntarily, to the degradation of a human life, in this case the life of a poor and, therefore, virtuous individual...

...Egalitarians have argued that general political reforms would be more helpful than private charity, so we might as well concentrate on remaking the world...

...I can testify that the poor have no monopoly on virtue...

...I am not making a purely historical point, one that is easily researched...

...Who are these people to get away with such vulgarities, in the face of so much talent—all the intellectuals, scholars, educators, and artists, who obviously could construct a more beautiful and worthwhile world...

...Nor is it in the bureaucrat's self-interest just to keep on being a part of a disgraceful system—most bureaucrats refuse to make the effort to imagine and embark upon some better ways to go through life...

...It is, for instance, one thing to wish that there were no poverty, another to want to eliminate it...

...It won't do here to talk about the incredible advantage of "initial endowments," a favored argument of modern egalitarians...

...The poor are kept poor, period...

...On the contrary, I think we should help those who have met with misfortune or handicap through no fault of their own, but I ground such assistance not so much in a duty to the helpless as in the natural generosity and benevolence characteristic of those who value successful life—a sort of fraternity of the living, of those bent on "making it...

...The latter would call for action...

...And the thought they they must be helped—that we must all be forced to help them—would have to be absurd...

...Why should barbers, bakers, insurance agents, bankers, building constructors, and their kind have so much say about the things filling department stores, the content of television shows, the style of furniture, the color of the local drive-in restaurant...

...Even on xelevision programs criminals are always rich and greedy, while the good and innocent folks are penniless...

...Now I am not making a case for the neglect of those with whom egalitarians are supposedly concerned...