In “From Business to Church Work to Public Service/a,” (hmmm, I bet this link only works for the rest of this year. Its an article from the National Catholic Register) there is a quote that nicely sums up what is wrong with a welfare state.

I learned a huge lesson from Jamaica’s Archbishop Samuel Carter, who said to me, “I don’t want you to give my people anything.”

He said, “I want them to feel as though they earned it. When you give, the giver is always in the position of superiority; the receiver is always in the position of inferiority. When you give to someone who doesn’t feel as though they have earned it, you diminish them as a person in their self worth.”

It knocked me off the chair, because I never really thought of it that way. As I thought about it later, he is absolutely right. The notion that somehow, in my giving something good I would be diminishing the self worth of that person, stuck with me./blockquote

This defines the reason that “option for the poor” is not welfare. It is not quotas. It is not entitlements. It is and must still be something that the poor can feel they have earned, and have worked for./p