​Are we entitled?

In the year 2015 the percent of Americans living in poverty was 13.5%, with 43 million Americans categorized as being poor. So the question is: since so many people are living in poverty, are we entitled to government assistance? Is it the government's responsibility to help these people

Simple answer: no. While many people believe they deserve help when they are going through hard times, the right to free food and money is not found anywhere in the Constitution. Furthermore, The Declaration of Independence says all men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, you have the right to try to achieve what goals you have, and the government will not stand in your way. The founding fathers wanted to make sure that no abusive government prevented citizens from achieving their prosperity. So, although many people have not achieved prosperity, this fact does not mean that it is the government’s responsibility to “help” them.

Furthermore, the answer to poverty is not government assistance, because that doesn’t work. Ben Franklin once remarked, “I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” This phenomenon continues to this day.

Yet my experience isn't isolated. According to Census.gov, 21% of US citizens receive supplemental federal aid. By itself, this fact means very little. However, of those who received “help”, most of them continued receiving assistance for long periods of time. 49% of those receiving housing assistance, 39% of people getting SNAP, and, overall, 43% of those who recieved any of the public assistance programs continued receiving the assistance for 3-4 years.

​These facts show that people generally do not use Federal aid as a stop-gap measure while in-between jobs, but rather, as a form of income. They have gotten used to receiving benefits. When people receive free help, they no longer feel the need to help themselves. Thus instead of incentivizing them to work, (often) the government simply subsidizes laziness.

Personal example: When I attended a week long Boy Scout camp several years ago, I knew I would need to take notes, so I took several pens. During one of the classes, the instructor asked everyone to write down some notes. I, of course, had no problems. But some of the other boys did not have any pens. So, naturally, I shared mine with them. I told them that they would need to buy their own pens from the general store(costing only a few cents) before the next class. Yet, somehow, when the last class was over, I still had to ask everyone for my pens; they never bought their own.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it…" I wholeheartedly agree: it is better to get people out of poverty than to make poverty bearable.