Quote Originally Posted by wufwugy View Post
We all say we want welfare for those who need it; what we get is welfare for those who don't need it.

As far as I can tell, charity has the same incentive problems as welfare except in that charities are freely chosen which makes them much more responsive to needed change. Even so, there are a lot of charity programs for people who use those programs to maintain the lifestyle that makes people want to help them in the first place.

Charity is probably good for children and the disabled. This can still create incentive problems, but it *might* be better than otherwise. I'm not sure. In my estimation, the problem faced by people like children neglected by their parents can't be solved with just good charity (or welfare, for those who like that idea). It would need a sufficiently decentralized government and sufficiently moral community where the neglectful parents could be deterred from their neglect without that causing systemic harm. Doing that type of thing with a powerful central government is a terrible idea because the people of a community then have very little say in what happens in that community, but it can be a good idea if the people of the community have enough say in what happens.
I'll note that this flat out might not be possible given our level of technology. Centralization, totalitarianism, and a perpetual class of the fucked may be an inevitable consequence of enough technology.