Some of my best friends are Libertarians, so I understand the conservative critique of government social spending, also known as “handouts” and sometimes even “the public trough”.
I believe, however, that the point of such spending is not to create a subclass of entitled loafers. Even if you don’t have any sentimental urge to help people in need–most social programs benefit society as a whole, not just the folks who are getting the actual money. Some people need a temporary hand if they’re ever going to become productive citizens.
A classic example of such a program that worked was the GI Bill of Rights, which helped US veterans get back into the work force after World War II. I came across a 1945 speech by my grandfather to a bunch of bankers where he explained why this “tax and spend” program was good for taxpayers as well as for veterans:
It was also considered that this is the youngest Army and Navy that our country has ever formed, and that millions of these men and women were under the age of twenty-one; that many more had never held a job of any sort.
It was also believed that a large segment of our defense industries, such as the manufacture of airplanes and accessories, and the building of ships could not be continued after the war, and that when demobilization took place many millions of civilian war workers would also be demobilized and would of necessity be seeking employment.
The Legion felt that the citizens of this country would agree that the veterans of this war were entitled to all the consideration which the country could give to them, but the Committee which wrote the bill also felt that a way must be devised by which returning veterans could be channeled into the civilian economy of the nation with the least disruption to the orderly flow of commerce and civilian production, so that the influx of millions of people looking for employment would not cause serious unemployment, or at least that such a condition could be minimized. It was felt that opportunities should be provided to veterans either to resume their interrupted educations or to be able to
find their niches in the communities of this country.
I hope veterans returning from the Iraq War will have the same opportunities offered to them, and I hope that a Kerry presidency will bring new hope to their communities as well.
I blogged about my grandfather “the two-shirt Democrat” before, and put the full text of my his remarks on the GI Bill here.