Since most of us have never lived in an America without a government-run social welfare system it is sometimes difficult to imagine how a liberty-oriented society might take care of the needy. Last month the owners and employees of AirNow and the people and businesses of Bennington showed us exactly how community-based charity can work.
The local effort on behalf of the people of the devastated nation of Haiti began with a phone call to Michelle Van Ness, AirNow executive vice president, from the Evangelistic World Outreach (EWO). EWO asked Van Ness if AirNow might be able to provide a plane to fly supplies to Haiti.
This simple request morphed into a charitable effort that included people and businesses from all over Bennington and New England. Van Ness requested and then shared with family, friends and co-workers a list of supplies needed. Word spread and donations poured in - more than 18,000 pounds of goods filled thirty-five pallets within a few weeks. AirNow owner David Corey donated a plane and staff time to collect, organize and stock the supplies and pilot John Somero volunteered his skill and time. Within a few days of the initial request Somero had delivered his first planeload of supplies and then stayed in Florida to continue this work with the help of Agape Flights, a missionary organization which is helping defray fuel costs. Meanwhile Van Ness is looking for truck and fuel donations to transport the remaining supplies to container ships in Maryland.
Some might wonder that all of this has been accomplished without the help of one government bureaucrat. None of Vermont's congressional delegates held town meetings to spur people to action. The governor did not have to beg the people of Vermont to open their hearts and wallets nor was the president's soaring rhetoric necessary to inspire us to greater heights. We did it because we, and I include in that the vast majority of Americans, are good and generous people who instinctively understand how blessed we are and want to help those who are suffering or in need.
What's remarkable about AirNow's grassroot, unmandated charitable actions is how unremarkable they are in this country. Almost daily we read front page news stories about people freely choosing to help other people. Whether it be community members of all ages plunging into icy water to raise funds for Special Olympics or members of a local church sponsoring a pancake breakfast to help a local family raise money for medical expenses, we Americans routinely come together to take care of our own.
In the college textbook Social Work and Social Welfare: An Introduction, the authors review the history of social welfare in England and the United States. It is interesting to note that in early America social welfare was a community responsibility. The American frontier was a hostile place where settlers needed to work together in order to survive. Colonial government was a loose and haphazard network which assumed no obligation for the care of its citizens. Instead, neighbors and churches and then towns provided relief for those in need. Economic uncertainty actually grew as colonial America moved from a semi-feudal system toward a pre-industrial society and at the time of the American Revolution public relief was the largest expenditure in most major cities' budgets.
Certainly the founders were aware of this yet they did not consider social welfare the domain of the federal government. James Madison, primary author of the Constitution, said “…[T]he government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”
Was Madison just a mean guy who didn't care about the poor? More likely he realized the impossibility of a government far removed from individual communities providing efficient and effective relief for poor individuals. He probably also recognized the potential for abuse, corruption and waste in a system that requires money to be filtered through several parties before it reaches those for whom it is intended. And he probably understood that cities, towns and states were better positioned to assess the needs of communities and develop solutions that would truly benefit the physically, socially and financially needy.
When the federal government assumed (unconstitutionally according to Madison) responsibility for social welfare, first in the 1930s under the New Deal and then through the Great Society legislation of the 1960, it guaranteed a one-size-fits-all approach that actually fits none. Instead of creative, innovative and local programs designed specifically to meet the unique challenges of individuals and communities, it set up a heavily bureaucratic system that punishes work and discourages marriage, two of the best guarantors against poverty.
Under the current welfare structure the craftier elements of society quickly learn how to "game" the system to get the most from it. Unfortunately, those who are truly deserving of help are tainted by these actions. Meanwhile, conscientious and productive members of society grow increasingly resentful that their charity is not only taken for granted but also compelled rather than volunteered. Perhaps most destructive, the government now stands as a barrier between those who give and those who receive, which greatly diminishes positive incentives for both parties to participate in finding long-range solutions to both personal and societal economic problems.
Americans are beginning to see that big is not necessarily better, and this goes for government as much as it does for corporations and banks. Local problems are best solved locally, a concept the Founders understood when they created a Constitution in which most governing power rested with the states, not in Washington D.C. By removing a bureaucratic layer we could do more good with less money. As AirNow so aptly demonstrated, small groups of people freely participating in charitable work can accomplish great things. It's time for Washington to get out of our way and let us get to work.
Your mention of the effort for Haiti reminds me of an article that Reason Magazine did on New Orleans after the hurricane. Within days of the disaster, tons of food, water, and other aid was sent spontaneously to help out. However, the Red Cross and FEMA stopped the shipments and most of the items went to waste. During the weeks that followed, anarchist and libertarian oriented aid groups provided food and shelter in direct competition with the government agencies, until they were shut down as being "unsafe". One year after the disaster, the Army Corp of Engineers and governmental contracted construction firms had barely begun working on rebuilding the city. However, in some wards, private initiative took over the work and rebuild several neighborhoods until again their efforts clashed with the government's.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can tell, the only reason some people want government to handled charitable work is to be sure that they can use my money for their pet projects.