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From: CJC@psuvm.BITNET
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Re: Health Care, Wonderful Market fo
Message-ID: <2269CJC@psuvm>
Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 13:47:01 EDT
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Posted: Sat Sep 21 13:47:01 1985
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>The notion that charity would be dead in Libertaria is amusing and entirely
>without foundation.  Most of the major charitable organizations in this country
>started during the late 19th Century, when there was no welfare.  Even now,
>with ruinous taxation sapping people's incomes, charitable giving is very high.
>Do you honestly believe that your fellowman is so selfish that he won't
>contribute to help those in need?
     
   But when and where were private charities adequate?  Every culture I
have ever read of  1) is in a hunter-gatherer, mostly communal stage
(eg. Eskimos, Bushmen)  2) Has governmentally-regulated welfare, or
3) Has severe poverty including beggars in the streets. Category 3 includes
all European (and European-decended) cultures I know of until quite recent
times.  Taxation and governmental regulation were both low in the latter
19th and early 20th century here in the U.S. and many people worked for
bare subsistence wages or, without work, starved.  Private charities sent
food to Ireland in the famine years - but it wasn't nearly enough.  Maybe
you prefer a culture in which the 'incompetent' (ie. those who aren't
successful, for whatever reason)  starve to death thereby leaving fewer
descendants; in that case say so.  But if you are sure that private charities
are sufficient to prevent severe hardship, give some real-world examples.