The greatest way to combat poverty is to first recognize what causes it in the first place -- sinful human nature. Sometimes that sinful human nature manifests itself as a robber baron who exploits the community's natural and human resources, thus making it harder to impossible for his fellow man to maximize his God-given talent so he can provide for himself and his family. Sometimes that sinful human nature manifests itself in the wrongful choices individuals make that puts themselves at risk. Either way, this is the reason why God gave the church the primary role of distributing charity in human society, because ultimately the church has the moral message to confront the evils that cause poverty in the first place.

When an amoral agent like the state intervenes instead, the best it can do is apply a band-aid to a flesh wound. It can treat the symptom, but it lacks the prescription to become the cure. Then, after a while, it becomes an enabler of the very thing it's trying to fix, just like it is today.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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The most prosperous economies are those that truly understand the role of government. As it's stated in our founding document: there is a God, our rights come from Him, and the only purpose of government is to secure and
defend those God-given rights. To put it another way, government is to encourage (not do) good and punish evil.

Of course, government in and of itself is not a moral agent, and usually inflicts the most horrors on humanity when it attempts to be, so it needs another institution to define for it what is good and what is evil. That is the role of the church and the family.

These clearly defined spheres of jurisdiction between cultural institutions are what produce the proper balance of liberty and morality, thus allowing for the most prosperity.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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How can a government know what the minimum wage should be? Can anyone even support a family on the minimum wage?

Here is the reality: real wages in this country have declined in relation to the rate of inflation/debt
since these sorts of government schemes to contrive equality began. Our wages nowadays do not have the buying power in a consumer-driven economy they once had, which is one of the reasons we carry so much debt. Just
about every major purchase a family makes these days is made on credit. These schemes are actually harming the very people they purport to help, because they're operating outside the natural laws of economics.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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The biggest misconception is that we're having a debate about the role of government in America today, when we're really having a debate about what authority or moral ethic we are going to govern ourselves by. The answer to that question then determines the role of government. For example, cultures that abandon the Judeo-Christian moral ethic, as ours is currently doing, end up growing government because something must fill the God-shaped void in the society. And that something ends up being the
state.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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Human history has shown that whenever power is concentrated in the hands of a few, or just one, corruption is bound to take place regardless of the belief system of the one in whose hand the power is concentrated. That's
why historically unions played a vital role as a check and balance on unfettered corporate power. Obviously unions have also struggled with the same fallen nature manifested as corruption that corporatists have.

Nowadays, unfortunately, unions do not primarily serve the needs of their workers but are more or less a funding stream and campaign platform for the Democrat Party. So while unions have a seat at the table, the workers
are worse off.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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Every job I've ever had came from a rich person, so I'm not sure how punitively punishing the very people who provide jobs will create more of them.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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The tax and monetary system that was in place in this country prior to 1913 helped encourage the greatest growth of human freedom and prosperity the world had ever known. Since abandoning that foundation we have increasingly become a debtor nation/people. I may have gone to public school and not the Von Mises Institute, but even I'm smart enough to know to go back to what worked before.

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Without an agreed upon, fixed standard, everyone becomes wise in his own eyes. Everybody believes their truth, which means somebody's truth isn't true. The fixed moral standard that once served this country well and made
it the freest and most prosperous nation on the planet was the Judeo-Christian moral tradition.

Since we have abandoned it, the culture has become more immoral, government has grown uncontrollably, and many once treasured institutions and associations in this country have become corrupted. That pretty much settles the argument on what truth is actually true as far as I am concerned.

Now the question is whether or not there is enough humility remaining in this culture to admit we've deviated off the path and to ask for directions back to the main (or narrow) road.

Talk radio host and author, Steve Deace

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