India and My Conservative Friend

I have some friends who feel that it should be every man for himself. For instance, if someone loses his job in an industry that is dying in this country, he should get himself retrained in another field and get back to work. Never mind that the unemployment benefits last for three months or so. He also thinks that welfare is for the lazy. It's all a redistribution of wealth, he says. I'll have to ask him what he thinks of the attacks in India this weekend. India has a large welfare state, no doubt, but I want him to think about the ramifications of a society in which we are divided into haves and have-nots, similar to India's caste system. Even though it's outlawed, it's still in practice.

The difference between U.S. and India, one could argue, is that poverty in the U.S. has never risen to the level it is, has been or will be in India.

Trouble starts when people are pushed to the fringes in any society and feel that they have nothing to lose. That's what happened when this country was founded. That's what happened when the Confederate States of America was founded and that's what we've been seeing in the Mideast for decades.

I'm not for funding people as a reward to lethargy, but offering them hope is the best way to maintain civility.