PBS: Are Americans a Stingy Lot of People?

[daredtowork]

62. Please check out some of the other posts

Religious donations may feel good, but the results are fragmented and uneven as far as actually helping the poor are concerned. So in the end these donations actually help the givers the most: you feel good about giving and perhaps are the recipients of gratitude. But if you actually cared about the fate of the poor, you would investigate better ways to help them.

When people are out of resources, what they need most is to be able to stabilize their lives. They need a stable place to live - a way to pay rent and bills. They need a way to get food and necessities. They need to feel settled and take a breath. Then, from this settled place, they can start a training/education or proceed, with the help of the Department of Rehabilitation or other Job Development agency if necessary, to get a job. This is the way to lift people out of poverty.

However, this what we are doing instead: dropping people in poverty into a place of absolute panic. Leaving them scrambling to find a place to live and trying to get basic resources. Barraging them with appointments that they have to get to without a subsidy for bus passes - probably while they are mobility impaired. Getting no help for entrenched debilitating medical problems because you're too poor to be referred to specialists or get the medications you need. If you didn't have mental problems why you started this process, you soon will. While you are constantly in survival mode, you can't think about moving forward.

How is this "solving" the problem?