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RE: Zero hunger writing competition entry for #livesustainably. Focus on voluntaryism
I like the general leanings of this article, especially encouraging people to help others personally-one of my biggest issues with Fed level social nets is they take the burden of helping off of taxpayers, who can believe all they need to do is pay taxes remotely and not worry about the poverty in their community because there are programs available.
I can't reach so far to be a libertarian or voluntaryist, however, as I believe there is an underlying assumption that such a system would lead to a Utopia. So while I think the non aggression principal is good, I don't think it is enough. If it was, Christ might have left us some political direction supporting it!
Keep up the good article though-good food for thought! Pun not intended...
Ha, I originally wrote a whole paragraph about that (and then deleted it for brevity's sake), using Scrooge from a Christmas Carol as an example: after asking whether there were still prisons and workhouses for the poor, his response was "I help to support the establishments I have mentioned--they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there." I agree and believe it has created a system where the rich have the sense that they're pulling their weight already, and the entire middle feels let off the hook because the government is taking care of it via the rich.
That's why I think as many things as possible should be tackled at the individual and local level. I don't in any way believe it'll lead to utopia, but on a scale with the Feds doing cradle to grave care on one end, and everyone being left to completely fend for themselves on the other, I think it's a pretty good middle ground to leave providing the immediate needs of food on the table to voluntaryism, and freeing up government resources from those things to concentrate on the long term root causes. At least in an ideal world that's the kind of thing the government would be working on...
Thanks for the feedback! :)