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The Census Bureau reported that poverty increased by four tenths of one percent in 2003 over 2002, from 12.1% to 12.5%. The figures mean an additional 1.3 million Americans earn less than the arbitary amount the government has defined as the poverty level of income. 46% of these poor own their own homes, 76% have air conditioning. Democrats immediately jumped on the report to repeat their claims that America is re-living the depression of the 1930s. While the Demcrats' claim is obviously false, Republicans failed to provide a satisfying answer for the increase. They said the figures were for 2003 and that when the figures for 2004 come out - 12 months from now - they will show poverty has decreased. What's the truth? We know that poverty is not always the fault of the poor person. Some people, it must be admitted, follow lifestyles that almost certainly doom them to poverty. Among these are hard drug use, prostitution, drunkeness, and laziness. It is, after all, not a crime to be a bum and if you want to be poor you can be. But the Bible is quite clear that God determines the level of wealth a person enjoys and that sometimes people experience poverty through no fault of their own. It is hard to imagine why a normal person would want to be poor, and this is the logic behind the Democrats' claim. Since normal people would not want to be poor, if poverty is increasing it must be because conditions exist which force them into poverty. The Democrats want us to believe these "conditions" are poor economic factors that have resulted from President Bush's mismanagement of the economy. But the economic factors are actually quite good. Unemployment in July was at 5.5%, exactly the same level it was at in July 1996 when then President Clinton campaigned on a theme that said Americans were very well off. Interest rates are lower today than they were in 1996, much lower, and home ownership and investment rates are up substantially. The true answer to why poverty has increased can best be understood by looking at one of America's richest cities, our capitol, Washington DC. Most of us don't think about it, but trillions of dollars flow into DC every year, not just from taxes - most of that money goes right back out. But every special interest group in America has its headquarters in the DC area and so does every federal agency, making DC one of the easiest places in America to find a high-paying job. Despite the money just waiting to be picked up in DC, it has the 6th highest poverty rate of any state in America, with one in 6 people living in poverty. Only Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and West Virginia have higher poverty rates. What else characterizes DC? Over half of the children conceived here are aborted. Child mortality rates rival the Third World, and homosexuality and prostitution are rampant. DC shows every sign that its population lives for pleasure today, in disregard of the moral rules that create freedom and prosperity. Among the factors that contribute to poverty in America, perhaps the most important is our own disregard for moral rules. It has been 32 years since the Supreme Court held fornication to be a Constitutional right. For 31 years it has been legal to butcher your unborn child. And last year, in striking down the few remaining laws against sodomy still on the books, the Supreme Court found a "right" to engage in any form of consensual sex that, it claims, laid hidden in our Constitution for over 200 years. In the time of America's Founders, people understood the great danger that sexual immorality poses. Listen to William Paley, writing in 1785:
Yet, in America of 2004, the act of sex has been completely decoupled from any sense of personal responsibility or moral obligation. If we want to know the real reasons that poverty has withstood the redistribution of over 5 trillion dollars to "the poor" we need to remember that the statistics reflect over 30 years of disregarding God's moral rules. We need to look at how we live our lives and what we consider to be acceptable behavior in others. The Democrats champion free love and the right to kill a child. They tell us that seeking our own pleasure is the goal of life and anything that forces us to face our responsibilities is facism. But there are other moral rules besides those that deal with sex, like the moral rules against dishonesty and theft. It is simply a lie to say that people who are allowed to ignore their moral responsibilities in one area of their lives will willingly accept them in other areas. We need to recognize that welfare, medicaire, and social security programs have failed. It is time to encourage people to be responsible for themselves and their families, and to reawaken the moral duty of private charity to eliminate government hand-outs. Government programs fail because lack of money is the symptom, not the cause, of chronic poverty. Only a spirit of love that becomes involved in the lives of poor people and gives them help and guidance in accepting personal responsibility can succeed in defeating poverty. If we want an America that is prosperous, we must reject the claim of Liberals and Democrats that man can ignore God's moral rules. These rules are given by a loving Creator to insure man's happiness. Teaching that people can break these rules just causes misery - and poverty. |
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