- Joined
- Oct 7, 2012
- Messages
- 5,228
- Points
- 113
While there is no denying the dangers of creating a culture of dependency, your statement "never to help the poor" is far too broad. It does not take into account why people are poor. For sure, some are poor because they are lazy. For example, if Lee Hsien Loong were to go to Marina Sands and lose all of his and his Papa's accumulated wealth (or political capital) on the row of a dice, he has only himself to blame and should be despised rather than pitied. On the other hand, some, become poor because of circumstances entirely beyond any human being's control - for example, unforeseen medical expenses. If tomorrow, Leongsam were to be struck with a rare virus which only the best and most expensive doctors in the US of A have a small chance of curing, he might quickly become poor in a matter of months if not weeks. That will be despite Leongsam having been smart and hardworking for 99.99% of his life. Going by your statement, if the occurence of this virus also happen to coincide with a downturn affecting Leongsam's business, we should just leave him to his own devices and disregard the fact that besides being a businessman, he also made significant contributions to society - like promoting free speech on the Internet through his forum.
Then there is the question of equality of opportunities. Children of the poor may have to forsake university even if they are smarter than Lee Hsien Loong. The loss is not just that of the particular child, but of society in general, an Einstein may be lost due to his family's impoverished circumstances which is no fault of his. This is the problem of Generational Poverty or Cycle of Poverty. I will save you the trouble of googling it. Here is one useful link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_of_poverty
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