Compassion in America
Americans are among the most compassionate people in all of history. Our current social welfare system is an outgrowth of very well intended ideas to assist those in need. Efforts to survive the Great Depression which started in 1929 naturally resulted in governmental initiatives to relieve human misery. These programs could have been temporary, but programs in government, religious organizations and non-profits tend to become bureaucracies. They take on a life of their own which includes the perpetuation of the program for the sake of its own constituents, especially employees, as much as its clients.
President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty around 1964 and many of the current programs of compassion were initiated. They have continued to be revised and expanded since then. All of them were based on the general welfare of the poor and the common good of all. There have been many unintended consequences or in military terms….collateral damage. I will identify them later.
Culture of Poverty
A culture of poverty is the result of compassion gone awry. By “Culture of Poverty” I refer to a mindset in which people who have received assistance become better at working the system than being productive employees or business owners. Make no mistake, it is work to work the system and it requires significant education about the system and persistence to maximize its value to you. You should understand this if you have ever needed to jump through bureaucratic hoops with its many forms, running around and dead ends. In reality sometimes it would take only a little more effort to be personally responsible as to be dependent on a government or another bureaucracy.
For most there is no way out of this culture of poverty. Those living in it do not have the education or skills to ever make as much working as they can by working the system. It is similar to a person who is employed in a field they do not enjoy but cannot change. That’s because their seniority, training and experience has produced a higher level of income than any other opportunity. If they change to some other vocation they start over at entry level. Most of us choose not make this kind of sacrifice. Neither do those with seniority in working the system.
Intended Outcomes
1. Temporary assistance to people in crises.
2. Opportunity to improve one’s lot in life.
3. Fill a gap temporarily to give a leg up permanently.
4. Provide training in methods to become responsible for oneself.
5. Care for those who cannot care for themselves such as orphans and those disabled.
6. Create ways for every elder citizen have their basic needs met.
Unexpected Outcomes
1. Permanent dependence
2. Locked in poverty with penalties for improving.
3. A lack of vision and the ensuing of hopelessness that breeds drug, alcohol and sexual addictions. This also promotes all cash paid under the table businesses such as drug dealing, prostitution and dealing in stolen goods. Rare to have checking or saving accounts.
4. Filling the gap creates a level of income that provides few, if any, exit strategies.
5. A significant arena of training is in maintaining one’s entitlements. Creativity is often consumed in working the system to maintain the assistance.
6. Clients often experience a loss of dignity and self respect. I believe self esteem cannot be given – it is earned. Many of the neediest either have too much dignity or don’t know how to work the system and their needs go unmet.
7. What should have been care for orphans, the disabled and the aged has become an industry of debilitating entitlements and victim mentality.
8. Government is now expected to fulfill the family’s responsibility for the care of their aging relatives. In America today the aged in physical or mental decline frequently feel in the way and useless when they lose mobility. A major stress on health care delivery has occurred as the need for the extended care industry has arisen.
9. Marriage has been undermined. Unwed mothers are mote likely to receive assistance or more assistance than married women and that assistance is often enhanced by having more children.
Problems in Social Service Delivery
1. The American social service system is intrinsically co-dependent. Its own need to exist depends on others being addicted to and dependent upon it. We have modern phrases that portray this dependency such as “I get a check”, “My check comes on the first”, or “When I get my check”. An entire private industry is built around the check – check cashing companies, buy here/pay here car companies, furniture rental companies, prepaid mobile phones. Thousands of others in social service depend on this system for their employment.
2. The family is undermined. Fathers are expendable. Marrying brings major penalties. These affect the feasibility of marriage for both young and old. Rules against live-ins are often difficult to enforce. This has resulted in over 40% of babies in America being born to unwed mothers.
3. The carrot is dangled before the poor in the form of basic material necessities including food stamps, Section 8 and Public Housing, aid to dependent children, and now Social Security Disability for minors. This appeal to the poor entraps them in a type of enslavement from which few can emerge. This is unlike previous generations in American history in which the poor have believed they have opportunity to rise to prominence, power and affluence. The penalties for even slight improvement through increased income are too great a risk to take. It takes too long to get all this in place for one to risk it on some job that may or may not work out. The poor are more likely to feel secure in what little they have.
4. Connections within the system yield the biggest rewards to those who know how to work it. For instance often low income city employees are in the best public housing. Knowing someone well placed in the system may result in such favors as being approved for housing assistance. Perhaps one could get their section 8 housing inspection moved up the schedule so they can get a better house.
5. Case worker’s loads are way too heavy. The most caring ones become weary fast. Cynicism is common among personnel. Caring relationships yield the most positive results but you can’t hire someone to love another nor can the government love.
The Resultant Lifestyle of Most People in American Culture of Poverty – Survival Mode
Many are harried and simply consumed with just getting by. Often they struggle with moral or legal dilemmas such as under the table income or living together unmarried. Frequently they possess chaotic homes and personal life. Instant gratification is the norm. It is not uncommon for recipients to have no vision, no plans, and no real hope – except the pipe dream of hitting the big lottery.
Solutions
1. Require some kind of employment to receive assistance rather than penalize the poor for working.
2. Require extensive training in parenting in order to receive aid for dependent children.
3. Cap the amount of aid to dependent children at a fair number of 3 or 4 children per mother. This solution may reduce the possibility of intentional or “I don’t really care if I have another child” pregnancies motivated by a need to receive more income by receiving more assistance with every additional child. This motivation could be conscious or subconscious.
4. Pay only for medical care for children with disabilities rather than giving social security disability to minors. Do not reward schools with additional financial assistance based on the number of children who are classified as disabled. The list of here to fore unheard of syndromes continues to be growing. This often happens without medical research to neither establish their existence nor provide competent diagnosis.
5. Require extensive training in money management to receive cash or cash equivalent assistance.
6. Acknowledge that the problem within some people cannot be addressed with money. They will have to have an internal change. People need to be transformed. They also need the positive social support that people like those of you reading this can give.
7. Often the compassionate thing to do is hold people accountable for their own predicament. Many need to suffer the consequences of their own actions. Our compassion has gone awry when we are so determined to relieve all human misery that we actually encourage the repetition of destructive habits and lifestyles. If you do the same foolish thing again you will experience the same kind of misery again. I have a very responsible teenage grandson. When he was about 2 years old, he was determined to stick his finger over a lit candle. There was no reasoning, explaining or demanding that would deter his rebellious action. Finally, I let him stick his finger in the flame. He has never done that again. It was a life lesson in the consequences of disobedience.
8. Some productive contribution to the common good needs to be a prerequisite for those who are able, in order for them to qualify to receive assistance.
9. People and agencies including the religious groups and other charities that are co-dependent do not hold people accountable. They engage only in charity rather than compassion. Compassion knows its limitations and the necessity of co-operation from the recipient to effect change for the better. I have some time to give in life coaching others. I require them to have qualities of co-operation that I refer to as FAT. That stands for Faithful, Available and Teachable. If fact I consider it presumptuous and disrespectful on my part to assume that any person wants to be different especially if that means being like me. For instance in my youth I occasionally fanaticized about being a hobo, now referred to as homeless person. A common goal of compassionate people is to eliminate homelessness. I believe that is disrespectful of those who make a choice for that to be their lifestyle when someone insists that another must have housing. A more appropriate expression of compassion is a desire to eliminate homelessness for those who want housing.
10. Follow in the examples of those who are engaged in the service to others in a long term commitment to assist in a co-operative venture with those in need. Twelve step programs are a good example. Another approach to coaching others in self reliance is apprenticeship, life coaching or mentoring. Pick someone with a FAT quality and enter into a lifelong friendship with appropriate assistance along the way. Yes, it is easier to give money to the poor, but what they need is you. This approach to compassion will require extended time and effort but it can make a real difference for good in the life of another person.
11. Will you join me in a new approach that is actually old by entering into relationship with one person who could benefit from being with you? We could eventually overcome compassion gone awry by engaging one to one in the kind of compassion that could really make a difference in that person’s life.
Conclusion
Americans have come a long way in helping the poor. It appears that we have gone too far with the many programs that are supposed to help people. The reality is that people help people. Programs are only the tools of those people. In American we are the government. When you complain you are talking to yourself. It took a long time to get compassion this messed up and it will take a long time to get it straightened out. Most of the time, when a pendulum of change starts to swing it goes too far.
So you feel powerless? No you are not. If enough people start to assist one other person in a meaningful friendship, the need for the current bureaucratic form of assistance will gradually diminish. Find someone who is FAT and enter into life with them for the long haul. Go for it. You can do it. You are not powerless. You can make a difference for at least one!