Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.

Congratulations on stealing someone’s quote that actually makes sense for once.

There's no justice without social justice

The view of the founders of this country was that rights precede government. These included the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". The purpose of government was to protect these rights and if a government did not do so it lost its justification for existence and could be overthrown.

The opposite of this is the belief that government precedes rights. Government can grant or take away rights. The justification for government is that it expresses the will of the majority. This even includes taking away the right to life or liberty of an individual if the majority wants that. It also includes the government giving people rights such as a right to education, health care or a certain income level. Since government has no wealth of its own, this means forcibly taking away the wealth of one person to give to another.

The founders were not consistent in the application of their philosophy of rights and the purpose of government, for example on the slavery issue. However, their philosophy of the government protecting freedom and individual rights was applied here more than any other country previously in history. The result was that the U.S. became the wealthiest country in history. We started our economic decline when we moved away from that and adopted the second view of rights and the purpose of and justification for government.

Cumbaya! We are lucky to live in a country where hard work can lead you to a good life. My parents were born in homes with dirt floors and died with two paid off homes and a decent bank account.

They didn't look for handouts but relied on their own hard work. Thankfully, they taught me the same values.

Societies have moved on since the 18tj century. We also had slavery and only white land owning protestant men were allowed to vote back then...

If hard work meant anything we'd be a different country.

Gofundme shouldn't be a replacement for universal Healthcare for example.