Happy Nat, why shouldn’t people be able to put their money toward the things they believe in? .

I never said they should be able to spend their money on these things. You asked why we have ‘hostility’ towards believers. They spending money on what I consider a waste pisses me off, I didn’t say they should not be allowed.

Are you putting money toward promotion of gay marriage?

Yes.

Are you putting money toward the protection of the environment?

Yes.

It’s a free country; you promote your own interests and everyone else promotes theirs. I don’t see the problem here.

I don’t see a problem here either, not sure why you think I do. Part of it being a free country is that I can be hostile when I see people doing stupid things.

It is great you were able to “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”, this shows a lot of determination, desire, hard work, and luck. Coming from that situation it seems you would realize that some people need help to overcome a difficult starting point in life.

I never said the money should go towards welfare or money should be handed out to these people. You seem to take what I wrote and fill in whatever details you see fit.

Many of the problems you mention could be helped through educatuion of how to get a job, manage money, stay away from addictions, use birth contol, and run a family/household. This is where I think money should be spent and where I give money in my local community. This would seem a better solution than to hope the “stop breeding”.

I’m afraid we are too far apart in our thinking to have any viable discussion here.

Handing out money to these kind of people does not help the situation at all. Many times these people do not use the money to feed or care for their children anyway — instead I’ve seen women support any number of able-bodied shiftless male sperm inseminators while their children continue to go neglected and hungry.

Do not paint me as an uncaring, unsympathetic person. Nothing could be further from the truth. I get angry when I see children mistreated and neglected — I do not care one whit if their parents were also mistreated and neglected.Once you reach a certain age, you should make the necessary changes in your life. At the very least, stop breeding. It doesn’t take much brainpower to look around you and figure out that you need to start doing things differently in order to change your life. It isn’t as if the US isn’t chock full of incredible role models. There are MANY resources in America already, and many wonderful and generous people. I know, because I took advantage of their offers of help. It is not as though I did it all on my own, so I am not asking anyone else to do it all either. What I’m asking is for everyone to BE RESPONSIBLE and put out even the tiniest of efforts. MOST people you see in dire straits are there not because of discrimination or lack of brain power; they are there because they have no moral character. This is where the religious right is correct 100%. Instead of giving handouts, start giving instructions (I agree that these people need to be led by the hand). Have penalties for failure to follow instructions. Start taking the children away — there are more than enough childless couples looking to adopt.

There is an old adage that is so, so true: Unrewarded behavior does not get repeated. This is a psychological fact. When public assistance is reduced for every additional child born, the birth rate in that region goes down. DUH! When men are chased down and forced to pay child support, they do. Many of these people live in circumstances that we consider horrific, but by THEIR standards, it’s not so bad, so they are not motivated to change. THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM. Where you see a problem and think the solution lies in easing suffering, I see a problem and think the solution lies in allowing the person to feel even more suffering. Clearly, they are not at their tipping point yet, that point at which they are motivated to say to themselves “this isn’t working for me; I need to do something different.” Obviously, as I have said before, the children should be removed from the home as they should not be made to suffer for their parents’ stupidity. If mass orphanages need to be built, so be it. The breeding has got to stop, and the perpetuation of one welfare generation after the next must be broken.

Liberals think they are so open hearted to want to give and give and give. But all that has done is create generations who have expectations that someone else will take care of them. It is wrong to hobble a person by making them believe that they are not capable of changing their lives for the better. Instead of sending victim creating messages like “Life is so unfair; the rich get everything; discrimination is the big boogey man” we should be sending messages of “You can do it; you can be anything you want; others before you have done it and are waiting to help you and show you how.”

But there is evidence that conservatives and the religious are more generous with their own money than liberals and the non-religious, unfortunately, even if you don’t count church donations:
http://lippard.blogspot.com/2006/12/charitable-giving-conservatives-vs.html
http://lippard.blogspot.com/2007/06/atheists-weak-on-charitable-giving.html

However, it’s not very useful to look to one or two – or even two dozen – examples of extraordinary people overcoming the odds and becoming successful, because the truth is that most people simply can’t do that. They don’t have the brains, they don’t have the drive, they don’t have the optimism, or the luck, or whatever it takes to overcome as you did.

So, what are we as a society supposed to do with the vast numbers of people who don’t fit your mold? Have you no empathy toward them whatsoever? Even you admit that your parents were irresponsible to let you go hungry in order to teach you a lesson or stick to their principles. Are we supposed to kick hungry children to the curb?

I for one do not want to live in a society where children beg on the streets and pregnant women have no access to supplemental food or income. Do you?

My point? I don’t think it’s fair to stereotype people or be all inclusive. I do know some Christians who do not donate a single dime to charity OR their church, but I can actually say it’s not fair to judge them because of that. They are on disability and SSI. In other words, they have no money.

Yeah, I just said that and about Christians too. I can be nice to Christians sometimes. I only criticize when it’s deserved and there have been times I’ve criticized atheists too.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2006/12/06/who_gives_to_charity