Let’s consider the role of government vis a vis charity, including government spending money for charitable purposes and government presenting itself as a charity.
Charity was once the sole function of churches and philanthropists. On this subject, Davy Crockett, a frontiersman and a congressman, had something to say. He explained he would never again vote to give tax money as charity after one of his constituents spoke thusly:
“The government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose.”
Our forefathers could have never imagined how many tax dollars would be spent in the name of charity along with the commensurate growth in government. Here in Santa Barbara County, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each and every year on the “less fortunate,” and truth be told, there is very little to show for it, except the pension debt of the government employees handing out the freebies.
How bad is it? Government spends so much time, energy and money on charity that it can scarcely perform its legitimate purposes. How else to explain the residents of Montecito collecting charitable donations to erect nets across the mouths of the canyons in an effort to prevent another deadly debris flow? Whereas, it is commendable when people take initiative to help themselves, nonetheless, we have to ask, since when are the basics of flood control, disaster prevention and recovery a function funded by way of a community bake sale?
No one should countenance our current problems as a product of climate change and the alleged negligence of Southern California Edison. The fact is, for decades, our electeds failed to construct adequately sized debris basins while they also failed to permit the management of fuel loads in the forest.
There is no denying that our county emergency responders performed heroically in the aftermath of the debris flow. And, even now, they diligently maintain our undersized debris basins and habitat-impacted creeks and culverts. Yet, there is no denying the fact that a full year was wasted as we failed to create more debris basin capacity in time for this rainy season. Why should Montecito not only tolerate, but privately compensate for, a full year of minimalist efforts to stave off another disaster? It is disconcerting to see the community holding out their hands for donations while holding their breath for the next evacuation order.
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