If you give a man a fish he will eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.

Most charities today give a man a fish. While these charities are doing a good thing in the short run think about what it doees in the long run. A permanent soup kitchen will feed the poor for free everyday till they die. There are places that will let the homeless a place to sleep everynight untill they die. I am not saying that these are bad things to do, but they let people stay at the same level with no effort.

Now say that all the money that was used for those efforts were used to create a for profit charity. Let me use this example. If you combined the two charities I mentioned above. You combine a soup kitchen with a place to stay the night. Then you have the homeless people who are able to work the place. They would have a place to live, they would have responcibilities, and they would make the place better. They could do everything from cleaning to cooking and everything else in between. These employess could get paid. This would give them money, and a job to put on a resume. To make money a laundry could be opened that they could work, or a restraunt or a million other things. The profits would then be used to either better the facilities, and hire more people or anything else.

The point I am trying to make is that charity and profit do not have to be bad things as long as they are done responcibly, and would make many people's lives better.

So what do you guys think?

Samething with welfare. Welfare is giving to people, and if they try and become self supporting, they get penalized and money taken away. I say, if you're on welfare and have a couple kids and you're willing to work, you should get more money, not less. The people just spitting out kid after kid for more welfare money should get less or just cut off at some point. Its sad really, the US is now becoming a country of do nothings, and get everything.

it sounds like a great idea, but i know or knew several homeless people. a friend of mines father in law was homeless. thing was when they gave him a bed and fed him every night, and tried giving simple responsabilities, he fefused the help. he would rather live on the streets. but that is only ONE case. it is hard to say how it would work, but it sounds like it would be well worth the effort of trying.

As far as wellfare goes I think people on welfare should live a more comune like life. Several families living in a larger dwelling and splitting the expensis. I know that this is not a great lifstyle but, but things like this would help get out of poverty faster. Sometimes you have to give up a little to get more.

In a case like that, I am sorry to say that he didn't deserve to get the free things if he was not willing to help out. It would be his decision to starve or not, is it fare for him to be able bodied and take things from people who don't?

Yea, you know the average welfare home has:

Cable TV
More groceries than they need
Highspeed internet
at least 1 car
More than 2 TVs
washer and dryer
Dishwasher
central air

*** (up in MN for this one) The ability to keep their place at 82 degrees when its 10 degrees outside and the state pays for it all. ***

I work 2 jobs, between all those things listed up there and my rent, I can make ends meets and save a few hundred a month, and I'm single!

it sounds good, and in that instance it would be a great idea, however I'm skeptical of for profit charities after working for one that bordered on a scam, working for "Pediatric AIDS Canada".

Basically what happened is this, we would go door to door asking for donations, got dressed up in suits and practiced our pitches for hours before going out.) Long story short, if I got, say, a 10 dollar a month donation, I would get a 25 dollar commission and at least two other people would get the same. I never knew the inner workings of the pay system, but I did know from what I was told that at least 2 other people would get that. So, assuming they gave for a year, the kids would get less than half of that money. if they gave for more than a year that number improves vastly but it was still pretty sketchy.

Thats the things i am talking about. Americans today will not live below a certian level in life that they think they are to good for.

One x-mas my family through our church ( I am talking about my whole family all aunts and uncles) decided to sponcer a family's presents. We walked in the house and they had one of the largest big screen T.V.s you could have at that time, and my whole family paraded in with presents. I was like 8, and no one in my family had a TV like that. Needles to say my parents lied to me about it, to make me feel better. But my parents work thier asses of to get my family what we have. And a family on welfare, who applied to a church doner prgram had that. I am still disgusted about it today.

That sounds like a pyramid scam to me.

that's how I usually define it, a refined pyramid scheme. This charity is a legitimately government registered charity though, which is the really bad part.

Tobias, its obvious you've never been on the other end of the helping hand...I pray you never see it...

Stop the war on the poor and start the war on poverty.

A place to sleep, something to eat, health and education are RIGHTS, not privileges.

What good is it teaching a man to fish when he cant afford the fishing pole?

So what about my idea do you not like? I don't think there is anything I missed. The people wouldn't have to pay to ear, nor to sleep there. They get money for work. What is the problem exactly?

P.S. you don't have to buy a pole you can make one for like less then 3 bucks. If you want to take the quote literally

Ummm, there are no rights to a place to sleep, something to eat, health insurance, but education k-12 is a right. The problem is, the poor in this country aren't poor. The average poverty line family has enough income to support 30 families from a poor country.

Sorry but I just read the bill of rights again, Can you help me by pointing out where you saw that?

Im talking about human rights... why would you challenge that? Dont you believe that housing, food, education, medical care are rights not privileges?

Maybe the average poverty line family might be able to support 30 families in a poor country, but they can't support themselves in America...

What rights do my plan infringe on? You can say all you want that my plan is wrong, but untill you give me some real reason why. Nothing you say is a vallid argument.

And as far as what your saying this is my thought.

People have every right to work for what ever they want. But no one has any right to take money from people who earn it. Thats just what they government does. They take away money from people who earn to people who don't need it, if they would only accept living a life without cable tv, internet, and other things that are not needed. There are was to get out of poverty without taking other peoples money away.

Thanks for the clarification.

Really? How many welfare homes have you been in?

As for the rest of this convo, most homeless shelters DO already require some type of effort towards finding employment, there are numerous programs available towards rehabilitation/ skill evaluation/ job training, DRS is one here in VA.

People think folks on SSI or SSDI get this huge lump of money & butt loads of food stamps but it certainly is FALSE. Try living off $600 a month & $10 a month worth of food stamps, it's NOT an easy lifestyle;^]

In closing, feeding the poor is NEVER a hurtful thing. Now I'm about off to the clubhouse where I am learning kitchen skills;^]

Turtlepoet78..I hear ya bud, I worked in a shelter for homeless men in AZ,oh yeah you'd think it was the Ritz-Carlton....the mean spiritedness of this thread has me sick to my stomach...

I can't believe the CRAP that comes out of people mouths...especially those who know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about...MORE GROCERIES THAN THEY NEED????? Are you F**kn serious???!!!??? Has anyone tried to live in the US without a car?

I think I'll go puke now...pardon me.