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Poverty is the degradation of
humankind. Society has a responsibility
to care for its less fortunate.
1. "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty." -Mother Teresa
2. "Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor." -James A. Baldwin (novelist, poet, playwright, activist)
3. "Poverty is the mother of crime." -Marcus Avrelius (Roman emperor, 161-180, philosopher)
4. "Americans are blessed with great plenty; we are a generous people, and we have a moral obligation to assist those who are suffering from poverty, disease, war, and famine." -Adam Schiff (Democrat, in Congress since 2001)
5. "In the face of suffering, God calls on us to respond." -Hillary Clinton
1. "Welfare makes you dependent upon someone else to take care of you." -Charles Evers (leading civil rights spokesman within Republican party) He argues that long-term exposure to poverty in younger generations keeps them down instead of getting them back on their feet
2. "'Public welfare' is the welfare of those who do not earn it; those who do are entitled to no welfare." -Ayn Rand. She believes that welfare creates more problems than it solves. Rand does not think that welfare payments to poor people are a good thing, because this involves using force to take money away from others. She believes that charity (giving money away) could be a good thing if the person giving the money wanted and chose to do it, but she does not think that people should be expected or forced to give away their money.
3. Paul Ryan--argues that with welfare increasing, crime has increased, educational scores have decreased, and the government has taken away much of our greatness--"a greatness that was achieved through individual endeavor."
1. The first act of kindness to the less fortunate that Monsieur Bienvenu (the Bishop of Digne) performs is giving his house to 26 poor invalids in the hospital, which demonstrates society's responsibility to care for its less fortunate.
2. The Bishop opens his house to Jean Valjean, even though he is a poor ex-convict, telling him, "'You are suffering; you are hungry and thirsty; be welcome. And do not thank; do not tell me that I take you into my house. This is the home of no man, except him who needs an asylum,'" (17).
3. The Bishop directs Jean Valjean away from a life of crime, imploring, "'Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man,'" (34).
4. Jean Valjean (at this point Monsieur Madeleine) offers Fantine and her child a home and shelter, promising, "'But now I will pay your debts, I will have your child come to you, or you shall go to her. You shall live here, at Paris, or where you will. I take charge of your child and you. You shall do no more work, if you do not wish to. I will give you all the money that you need. You shall again become honest in again becoming happy. More than that, listen. I declare to you from this moment, if all is as you say, and I do not doubt it, that you have never ceased to be virtuous and holy before God. Oh, poor woman!" (76).
1. "One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." -Proverbs 11:24
2. "One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives his gifts to the rich--both come to poverty." -Proverbs 22:16
3. "Do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court, for the Lord will take up their case and will exact life for life." -Proverbs 22:22-23
4. "Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits." -Exodus 23:6
5. "Defend the weak and fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed." -Psalm 82:3
6. "The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor." -Proverbs 22.:9
7. "The righteous care about justice for the poor but the wicked have no such concern." -Proverbs 29:7
8. "For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'" -Deuteronomy 15:11
5. Jean Valjean fulfills his promise to Fantine and saves Cosette from a life of poverty and misery by taking her away from the Thenardiers, giving her a better life.
6. Hugo describes the "third substage" of society, or the lowest level: "They have two mothers, both stepmothers: ignorance and misery. They have one guide: want, and their only form of satisfaction is appetite. They are voracious as beasts, that is to say ferocious, not like the tyrant, but like the tiger. From suffering, these goblins pass to crime; fated filiation, giddy procreation, the logic of darkness. What crawls in the third substage is no longer stifled demand for the absolute, it is the protest of matter. Man there becomes dragon. Hunger and thirst are the point of departure; Satan is the point of arrival," (281)
1. Welfare aids children; it doesn't hurt them.
2. People are bound by responsibility to treat others as equals, even those less fortunate.
3. Welfare minimizes crime.
Victor Hugo, the Bible, and numerous other sources harbor the justified belief that people have a moral duty to assist people in need. There are some who argue that this is not so, that people do not have an obligation to help those in need, but conclusive evidence and reasoning shoots down these arguments. Because of this evidence and reasoning, Hugo's philosophy is proven: poverty is the degradation of humankind, and society has a responsibility to care for its less fortunate.