Hi, Hilary, from Seattle, WA! I’m taking a short vacation with my two youngest kids right now; head back home tomorrow night. But I guess the thought here was yes, there are some folks bad off here through no fault of their own… but our society here does have a problem with a sub-group of such people – the ones who do not make any real effort to help themselves and extend their hands in perpetuity. I do feel that these folks are “undeserving”; that is, I do not like the concept that a portion of my hard earned wages should be taken away then given to these undeserving folks for the political concept of redistributing wealth… And the post does say those that CAN help should do so on a local basis.
America has a very fine record of using tax to give the less fortunate a long-term leg up, for instance The GI Bill and Head Start. These interventions were targeted at the least well off, but of benefit to everyone in the long run.
Masako and Spam Musubi 
Good choice, Koji.
The undeserving poor? Surely this is the old argument the better-off use to absolve themselves from doing anything about the less well-off.
Hi, Hilary, from Seattle, WA! I’m taking a short vacation with my two youngest kids right now; head back home tomorrow night. But I guess the thought here was yes, there are some folks bad off here through no fault of their own… but our society here does have a problem with a sub-group of such people – the ones who do not make any real effort to help themselves and extend their hands in perpetuity. I do feel that these folks are “undeserving”; that is, I do not like the concept that a portion of my hard earned wages should be taken away then given to these undeserving folks for the political concept of redistributing wealth… And the post does say those that CAN help should do so on a local basis.
America has a very fine record of using tax to give the less fortunate a long-term leg up, for instance The GI Bill and Head Start. These interventions were targeted at the least well off, but of benefit to everyone in the long run.