cyrnel

Sweetpea, I do have pity for his situation, but no more than those of us who can't support ourselves. I'm not judging his family size and my judgement has nothing to do with the situation. His choice or not, the fact is he finds himself unable to support his family in their current environment.

Really, what this brings out for me is disdain for the people and systems who put him in an unsustainable situation. If they tried to build a community with affordable housing and job creation/placement it might work. Putting a guy like this and his family (specifically a large cost/income ratio) into a typical community without a better plan than "8mo and you're on your own" is a waste, and creating pain and failure for everyone. The article tries to focus our attention on charity or our own failures, and not on fixing the failed process that placed this family. That's only perpetuating the failure.

I have compassion for the guy, but like many other problems this one was entirely predictable. This makes me jump straight to wanting to blame/fix. Obviously I'm still stuck on blame.

__________________
There are a vast number of people who are uninformed and heavily propagandized, but fundamentally decent. The propaganda that inundates them is effective when unchallenged, but much of it goes only skin deep. If they can be brought to raise questions and apply their decent instincts and basic intelligence, many people quickly escape the confines of the doctrinal system and are willing to do something to help others who are really suffering and oppressed." -Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, p. 195