Charity is and should be a private affair. The government tends to ruin whatever it gets involved in, better to keep it involved in the bare minimum for which there is no substitute.
BTS
There have been a couple of programs on PBS lately that show that since the Reagen admin in the 80s began to pare away at the programs that benefited poor hispanics, blacks and poor whites that the infant mortality rate has risen (It's one of the highest on the globe) and the health of these has suffered significantly. Some people think that social welfare policies means handing people checks every month. It can also mean health programs, daycare, schooling, housing, etc. Many of these programs give a hand up rather than a hand out.
We pay as much tax as countries that have social welfare programs. When you look at federal, state, city, county, local sales, license plates and other types of taxes, we pay as much as they do. But we don't get the same benefits they do. Sweden has one of the highest quality of living there is. They do not have to worry about housing, daycare, health care or education. They pay their taxes, but they have much less stress when it comes to necessities and essentials. We could say the US was a great country if it valued the health and well being of all of its citizens. How can the rest of the world expect America to care about the rest of the world if America doesn't take care of its own?
