For those who struggle with day-to-day expenses, including fuel, food and rent (or mortgage), it’s easy to see why organizations or programs that offer immediate aid are seen as knights in shining armor. Who can blame Democratic voters for wanting to extend this kind of immediate compassion?
By and large, social programs and immediate aid organizations dominate large, urban areas nationwide, and here in CT as well. Most of these are tied to the state, though some hold a non-profit status.
So why the commotion over establishing new programs or expanding old ones?
In short, no one wins.
In the old days, social responsibility largely belonged to the church: both hospitals and schools formed the foundation of American health and education. Over time, as more autonomy and choice proliferated, that responsibility was shirked — and society can’t stand a vacuum any more than nature can. Enter the state aid programs.
From the New Deal to the Great Society to Build Back Better, America’s federal government has in fact been the underlying cause to the crisis of immediate aid.
What’s the underlying cause for lack of housing? Federal and state rules.
What’s the underlying cause of inflation? Federal money printing.
What’s the underlying cause of energy price hikes? Government regulations and green new restrictions.
But many, just trying to get by, won’t stop to think about these facts. The offer of instant aid by the State behemoth responsible for their plight is not seen. Not to mention that instant help is often no real path forward, but a bandaid.
State programs are really a competition of power between the most favored groups. Those that win rarely solve society’s ills; but unlike the church, in which financial waste is far less of a problem, state programs get printed, federal money for trying.