...We can't expect to create more jobs if we punish the type of activity that creates jobs... if we wish to fight poverty, we must end those government policies — high taxes and regulatory excess — that inhibit growth and job creation. We must give people the opportunity to start new businesses and enable low-income Americans to save and accumulate wealth.
Believers in the free market often seem defensive when the topic is poverty. They shouldn't be.
Nothing has done as much to lift people out of poverty as capitalism and free markets. All one has to do is look around the world to realize that those countries that provide the most economic freedom have less poverty than those that are still mired in socialism and government control.
Compassion is more than talking about the plight of the poor or giving them just enough money to make poverty a bit more comfortable. Real compassion is about creating the conditions that will enable the poor to get out of poverty.
Hear a little gem from Milton Friedman - Greed:
Haase - "History, learn from it or become it".