29-11-2023, 10:05 AM
A quote from Dr Samuel Johnson, written in the 16th century and still worth remembering today.
"What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to beggars? They only lay it out in gin or tobacco".
"And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence it is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to shew even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths."
To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favours among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.
Norman Mailer
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque & insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.
Oscar Wilde
"What signifies, says some one, giving halfpence to beggars? They only lay it out in gin or tobacco".
"And why should they be denied such sweeteners of their existence it is surely very savage to refuse them every possible avenue to pleasure, reckoned too coarse for our own acceptance. Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding; yet for the poor we delight in stripping it still barer, and are not ashamed to shew even visible displeasure, if ever the bitter taste is taken from their mouths."
To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favours among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged.
Norman Mailer
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque & insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.
Oscar Wilde
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)