American discontent stems from the pretense of caring

"If we can prevent the Government from wasting the labor of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy,” Thomas Jefferson said.

The last few decades in the US showed that the “we” Jefferson referred to were not successful achieving this goal.

Lyndon Johnson wanted to care for the poor. Yet, despite increased spending from negligible amounts in the early 1960s to about US$700 billion on just select programs now (not all, according to the Congressional Research Service Report about Federal Outlays for Selected Low-Income Assistance Programs), poverty rates did not change, hovering around 15%.

Read full article: Asia Times, November 3, 2016