"Well, in the Great Depression, a lot of people just died." Interesting. Do you mean a lot more people than normal? I am curious because life expectancy increased during the Great Depression. It increased from 57.1 years to 63.3 years.
"They were mostly cared for on an ad-hoc basis in local charities and poor houses." Charities and poor houses? Yes in a sense. But who ran the charities and poor houses? Was there no individual charity? "However, most of the country lived in a rural area and was able to gain some sort of sustaining livelihood from farming/fishing/etc." Sure, most did. Does that mean that all were self-sufficient at all times or did they at some point rely on the charity of neighbors and friends? There were droughts, fires, outbreaks of disease and sickness, premature death of the main provider, and so on. "We started urban renewal in the late 40s and changed the makeup of the population of our cities and suburbs substantially. The creation of public housing in the process did provide housing for many of the poor but also contributed to long term problems for many of the neighborhoods as well, especially when dealing with minority population centers." So, are you saying government meddled in redistribution of wealth, and the results are long term problems in minority neighborhoods? Or that the governments dabbling in in urban renewal caused white flight? J - I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. - Benjamin Franklin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:322605 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
