Whose policies and ideas are these?
1) A policy of effectively withholding relief to the poor and allowing market forces to take their course.
2) The idea that government charity will upset the free market and be an interference with free enterprise, which encourages initiative and self-reliance and other moral goods.
3) The belief that doing too much to stop hunger through government programs will encourage indolence, dependency, and reliance on government.
In other words, "charity" would upset the morally righteous free market, and make people lazy.
These may seem to be the ideas of Congressman Paul Ryan and other GOP conservatives in 2014 However they are the ideas and policies of the British government during the great famine in Ireland, 1845 - 1849 where that government did virtually nothing to stop 1 million people starving to death during the "potato famine."
But Mr. Ryan, supposedly the great intellectual of the GOP, is the grandson of Irish immigrants escaping from the famine. But he actually sounds a lot like the English Baronet Charles Trevelyan who was in charge of withholding food from the starving irish and advanced the ideas and policies noted above.
Mr. Ryan, who wants huge cuts in food stamps, Medicaid and seemingly all programs to help the needy in America, says he wants to make life harder for the poor for their own good.
"'We don't want to turn the safety net into a hammock that lulls able-bodied people into lives of dependency and complacency, that drains them of their will and their incentive to make the most of their lives," he says.
And concerning the free market he says, " Free enterprise is about more than material riches. It incorporates moral truths about personal dignity and responsibility."
In other words, In other words, "charity" would upset the morally righteous free market, and make people lazy.
