@YARNLADY In a perfect society, each would produce according to his ability and each would receive according to his need.
Agreed. It would be nice but I won’t hold my breath while waiting for it to arrive.
Forgetting Bibles, religions and the supposedly devout – all of whom and which have done very little to make the world a better place and much toward destroying it, some sensible taxing and incentive on the part of Government could go a long way toward alleviating much of the stress of the genuinely underprivileged.
If someone who was financially capable was to support an underprivileged family, help with everyday living, assist with children’s schooling etc., sponsor in fact, and in return be allowed to claim (as with charitable donations) the amounts involved as a tax deduction it might increase the desire to be charitable. If all goods had a multi-tiered sales tax with those at the lower financial demographics and any who full time assisted them paying less for all goods, that would also help.
Here (Australia) more than twenty years ago the government brought out a scheme to reduce the cost of rental accommodation. For any small investor who wished to invest in rental property – as an aid to funding retirement etc., the Government allowed then to “Negative Gear”. That means that any shortfall between their cost in building/buying/maintaining the property and the rental returns was a complete tax deduction – as long as they owed more tax than the shortfall, they could claim it back. Investors ended up with effectively free housing and the competition from increased numbers of rental homes on the market kept the rents much lower than they would otherwise be. Some of my daughters while still in their twenties owned two or thee houses. One daughter owned a block of apartments before turning twenty (with a huge mortgage of course – but she will own it outright in another five years or so.)
There are a great many ways that some thoughtful approaches by Government can improve the lot of the poorer members of society, but not many governments do so. One of the biggest problems are those who “rort” the system, accept charity that they are not really entitled to. Those who could work but won’t etc.