Nance Greggs: The Path of No Resistance

[DemocratsForProgress]

I am occasionally berated for giving money to the homeless people who panhandle on our downtown streets. “He’ll just spend it on booze,” someone will say, shaking their head in disgust. My reply is always that once the money has been given, it belongs to the recipient, to do with as they see fit.

I don’t think the people who say such things are less generous than I am, or are completely bereft of sympathy for the less fortunate. It is simply a matter of their finding it easier to believe that all street beggars are drunks, and therefore the authors of their own misfortune, than to face the reality that millions of good, decent people have fallen by the wayside through no fault of their own, and are more than deserving of help.

And so the path of no resistance becomes ingrained. It is simply easier to believe that the unemployed can find jobs if they tried harder, that everyone on welfare is a cheat, that those bankrupted by medical expenses due to an unforeseen illness deserve their plight because they chose an unhealthy lifestyle, that those who lose their jobs and their pensions are too stupid to have planned ahead for such a catastrophic event.

This way of thinking is just the kind of moral loophole too many people blindly cling to, because it gets them, morally and financially, off the hook. No need to trouble one’s beautiful mind with those who find themselves in dire straits – no need to support social safety nets with tax dollars that could be spent elsewhere, or not spent at all...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2012/06/24/the-path-of-no-resistance/