Is there any such thing as a free lunch?

" 'Is homelessness the result of drug abuse and misguided entitlement programs as conservatives claim or did it occur, as liberals agreed because of cuts in social service programs and failure to create economic opportunity for the poor?' asked professor Fuchs.

'Sometimes I think it is neither. I think maybe people get the lives they want.' I answered.

'Are you saying that homeless people want to live on the street? They don't want warm beds and roofs over their heads?'

I said, 'Not exactly. They do. But if some of them were willing to work hard and make compromises, they might not have ideal lives but they could make ends meet.' "


Those words are from a book I finished last week and have been processing ever since then. In addition to reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I was listening to the radio yesterday and the host was talking about providing meals for people during the holidays. His question was do we incentivize bad behavior with charity? And I can't help but think that that may be true. I wonder how/if government programs and churches and soup kitchens and shelters keep a balance between caring for people and encouraging personal responsibility. This all should be prefaced with there are clearly health, mental and physical things that can throw any one of us into a situation we couldn't see coming nor would we have any idea how to respond. My thoughts are about those who are able bodied and able minded yet are still recipients. I should also say I am really just thinking though this and don't really know how I feel.

We never know someone else's whole story or even the day they've had, for me to assume I can understand and fix this is silly, I also know I may sound insensitive and un PC. I do know I can have my thoughts and that comes from my 33 year old tome and while it isn't nearly the story of some, I do have some framework to develop my opinions. Having read The Glass Castle, that professor couldn't have been more wrong than to question the author and her thoughts on homelessness.

I know I feel like we live in a time where there is such a huge wave of entitlement. We think we should have what our neighbors have for no other reason except we want it and not because we have worked hard and saved for it. It seems like there is a shift away from getting into the mailroom and working hard to move up.

I guess I am just wondering why are people ok with the status quo? Why would everyone not want to have more from their life? And why are the people that have some so unsatisfied until they have more? I guess those two questions seem like they don't go together but in my head they do.