Look, these people, they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future. I just figure that we have two things we can do. Help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN. Right? — Blackhawk Down

That line was written about a failed state in the Horn of Africa.  It could very easily reference a lot of places in the United States.  Big cities like Detroit and Los Angeles are eating their own tails, and whole swaths of their sprawl are no-go zones for decent people.  It could also be said for a lot of rural areas, like the San Joaquin Valley in California or small towns across the mid-west.  We have allowed entire generations to become dependent on government for everything, and Uncle Sugar is running out of money.  At least, he’s running out of money for the things these communities have become addicted to.  We have plenty of money to pay for vacations and travel for our elected elite.  We have plenty of money for studies on why life is unfair and why that makes some of us feel bad.  We have plenty of money to pay for the mistakes of corporations and to pay off political donors with lucrative contracts for self-licking ice cream cones.

If we are going to provide aid to the poor in this country, we need to provide aid that is going to get them to the point they don’t need it.  We need to educate them to give them the skills they need to find jobs.  We need to tailor entitlement programs so that only the basics of life are covered so that there is a stimulus to do better.  We need to make sure that they do not fall into the padded trap that having no consequences for bad decisions becomes.

If we’re going to continue to burn money to keep the lower classes from torching the joint, we might as well use it to make it less likely they’ll play with matches.