But if the government didn't get in the way, then people would do that within their own communities, is the next round of the argument. (Or, if they're particularly exciting, they say that their church should do that, in complete innocence of the fact that not everyone wants to or can be part of a church...)
Then they point out the high quantity of charitable giving in the US as 'evidence' that low govt help means the community steps up. (Which it does to an extent, but not enough to cover the whole gap, and 'the community' discriminates on some pretty terrible criteria - but I don't actually have any data for that (I'd like some, again) and my interlocutors seem to think that it doesn't...)
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Date: 2012-11-27 11:59 pm (UTC)Then they point out the high quantity of charitable giving in the US as 'evidence' that low govt help means the community steps up. (Which it does to an extent, but not enough to cover the whole gap, and 'the community' discriminates on some pretty terrible criteria - but I don't actually have any data for that (I'd like some, again) and my interlocutors seem to think that it doesn't...)