For Ye Have the Poor Always with You
Cathy Young discusses The Problem of Poverty at Reason.com. She points out the deficiencies in the liberal and conservative approaches to dealing with poverty. She agrees with Megan McArdle that many of the conservative notions concerning the causes of poverty are correct, but conservatives need to be less moralistic. I tend to agree with that assessment. The liberal’s heart is in the right place, but doesn’t matter too much if liberal policies don’t effectively deal with the issue. Conservatives, on the other hand, need to have less of a “holier than thou” attitude when it comes to the poor. This is particularly true of religious conservatives. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” and all that.
