The point is, you reward and encourage behavior that does not lead to a better life. Essentially, by giving the person a ten spot, you are enabling their life style, reinforcing the attitude of begging makes money and keeping the recipient from making the hard choices that will lead to a better life. -------------------------------- Touch a hot stove get burned. Touch it again, get burned again. Get a job, lose a job, get a job, lose a job. Internally they have failed and they'll fail again. They have resigned to being a loser and a failure. What do you think? Do they care what you think? Hard choice, poor choice, they are done dealing with choices.
If the guy dies of his alcoholism, society wins though. Perhaps we should come up with an inverse tax where people who are poor get taxed MORE on their alcoholic purchases. Then use that money to finance the government programs that the poor use. The rich should pay 0 taxes on booze, but finance their own rehab.
lolatency wrote: ""If the guy dies of his alcoholism, society wins though"" Wrong. We lose. $$. Imagine how much it'l cost to: A.Treat him and his terminal liver. B. Dispose of the body.
What makes you think a wino will bother going to the hospital? In college, all the girls who got alcohol poisoning just passed out and, unless someone called an ambulance, just died.