This thread is a pretty important topic imo. It alludes to a very significant American issue today. Historically, one of America’s greatest strengths was its generosity and charity for citizens in need.
For a long time, America reduced a lot of human suffering through charitable programs. It worked because the population felt a certain amount of shame about needing help, and that kept people from taking advantage of the resources unfairly, taking away help for others in need.
However, today we do have a lot of people (amount unclear) who see charity as an entitlement. That lack of stigma has two negative effects. It results in abuse of charity resources and it takes away from others who are truly in need.
So the more you reduce or eliminate the stigma, the more you risk having people take advantage of the charity unfairly.
I don’t quite know what the answer is, but the political wars of today between the right and left stems from, among other things, these types of issues.
People who do everything possible to avoid charity do not like seeing others take unfair advantage of charity. It’s a deep seated anger. I don’t know what the solution is to this problem.