Freedom Flyer 16

Regarding the headline Minimum wage raise, welfare boost urged (Free Press, April 24).

On the surface, this type of pronouncement may seem to many to be wonderful news, which would help the poor and eliminate food banks, etc.

This type of altruistic thinking, while sounding helpful, is actually counter-productive and will not only not help the poor, but will ensure that they remain so, and it will actually drive more people, not fewer, into the arms of poverty.

As long as governments think it is their "public duty" to abrogate people's self responsibility for their individual well being, they will continue to sap not only the initiative of the unproductive, who are rewarded, but also the productive, who are penalized for being so with ever-escalating rates of taxation.

The inevitable result will be longer lines at food banks - not shorter.

Why is it that although governments have never spent more money on fighting poverty, the number of people using food banks is increasing?

This fact alone (according to the article) should convince the socialist politicians and share-the-wealth believers who dream up these self-defeating "fight poverty" campaigns.