In the book, “The 5000 Year Leap”, Cleon Skousen makes the point that the Founders of this country did not intend for the federal government to be handing out welfare payments to people. The Founders believed in the ideal that people were helped more by requiring them to work for their living, than handing out the requirements for their existence. Part of this ideal came from the Bible and part came from the pioneer work ethic.

Dr. Skousen quotes many of the Founders in their writings against having the federal government hand out money to the poor. Many thought that taxing the wealthy to give to the poor a bad idea. They also condemned the idea of spreading the wealth around. Those statements are taken from quotes of the Founders in their own words over 200 years ago. It is amazing how far we have fallen in that time in regards to taking care of our poor.

Jesus Christ said that we shall always have the poor among us. By definition, there will always be someone poorer than someone else. To try and make everyone have the same amount of “stuff” is impossible. There will always be inequality. If the government mandates equality of “stuff”, it might be able to maintain some degree of equality of stuff for a time. As soon as the control is lifted, some will be richer and some poorer than others. It is the laws of human nature. Some people are going to be more industrious than others and so be richer. Some will want things done for them and so be poorer. You cannot eliminate the poor. What you can do is improve their lot in life. We have achieved that in America. The left talks like our poor are so bad that they would flee the country if they could. But, if you compare our poor to the poor of any other country in the world, ours have more things.

We have a massive federal bureaucracy to fight the war on poverty as President Johnson called it. In over 40 years of fighting this war on poverty, the percentage of “poor” has not changed. That is not really a surprise as you always have poor. That Democrats make us all think that our poor are so poor as to be barely surviving is a joke. Our poor are comparatively well off. That is not to say that I want to be one of the poor. I want to be one of the rich. I am working hard to become one of the rich. The likelihood that I will make it to the rich category diminishes with each passing year, but I keep trying.

My wife and I are firmly in the middle class. We started out in the poor category when we were first married. We stayed that way until I took my first full time job as a Deputy Sheriff in Colorado about a year and a half after being married. During the interview process, my wife was asked if we could live on the salary of a starting Deputy Sheriff, which they thought was very low. My wife replied that we had been living comfortably on half of that. The interviewers were astounded that we could have lived on less than that beginning salary.

Since that first job, we have gradually moved up the ladder financially. We would never be considered rich, but we do make incomes in the top ten percent of households. I do not consider that rich. I consider that middle class. We would have to make at least 2.5-3 times what we make to be considered rich in my book. Of course, Obama put the cutoff point where he would not raise taxes at that point 2.5 times what my wife and I make.

That is a typical story of most Americans. It is also typical of many of those who are poor today. Many of the poor are those starting out in life like my kids. They have little today, but over time will move up the financial ladder. Some have lost everything and will rebound. There are some that have been there for generations. To talk of the”poor” as all the same is wrong. All are individuals and need individual help. Government help is always “one size fits all”. When I worked for the government I was required to do things that made no sense, because they were needed in other states. In my state, they made no sense. Government help is always this way.

The Founders envisioned that the individual would help himself first. Second, the family would step in and help the individual. Then you move up the ladder through Church and other groups long before you would reach the federal government. Their idea was that the federal government was to come in after a natural disaster or something like that, not for everyday assistance. Many of the Founders wrote that general assistance to the poor was unconstitutional.

We have moved a long way from the ideals of the Founders when it comes to helping the poor. It would be wonderful if we could get back to those days. In my family, we try to help those starting out or who need help. We try hard never to go to the government for assistance. Sometimes it is something too big for the family or the Church to handle, so my kids have gone to the government to get some assistance. Those times have been rare. We are trying to live the ideals of the Founders when it comes to the treatment of those in need. It would be wonderful if others would do so as well.