Through a Glass Darkly

Helping the poor out of their situation rather than simply enabling their situation is tricky. As previously pointed out, hand-outs on a needlessly long-term basis can actually be more harmful in the long run.

Needy people need permanent solutions to their problems, or “hand-ups.” But helping a needy person find a solution to their problem doesn’t necessarily mean giving them a solution to their problem. That would create a different kind of problem.

I saw a good point that relates to this idea made by Rob at Say Anything Blog in his post yesterday titled When Good Deeds Aren’t Really All That Good. Rob wrote:

Simply giving people things, whether it be a new home or a new car or even some new government entitlement, rarely makes them better. It may improve their situation a bit while whatever you’ve given them lasts, but the key to true success is self-sufficiency. If these people can’t provide for themselves, no amount of help in the form of giving them things is going to change that.

Rob’s thought suggests a key aspect that should be present in programs to help the poor: self-sufficiency. Giving a poor person the solution to their problem (say, for example, lots of money) without helping them gain the ability or resources to maintain what they have newly aquired (like the ability to make wise spending, earning and saving decisions) will ultimately end up with them not keeping what was given them and they will be needy once again.

Whatever solution we help the needy gain, we must also help them gain the ability to maintain, on their own ultimately, that solution.