Dear Mr. Berko: I’m active in my church, doing God’s work for the poor and homeless, and we’ve done lots of good work. I’ve been reading you for 25 years, and none of your columns has spoken for the poor or homeless. We support a universal basic income. Could you discuss our work (narrative enclosed) with your readers and ask them for contributions so we can continue God’s work?
— AS, Dallas
Dear AS: Thanks for writing. Every year, I receive a half-dozen similar requests. This column helps readers make investment decisions; it doesn’t ask for donations to support admirable goals that are as realistic as world peace. If I favored one organization, I’d have hundreds demanding similar help.
Take a glimpse at history. Look back to when Napoleon ravaged Europe. Recall the Crusades and the Norman conquest. Look back several thousand years before Christ, to the pharaohs of Egypt. What would you find? You’d find physicians, entertainers, priests, merchants, politicians and standing armies. You’d also find hunger, inequality, discrimination, sickness and a wide chasm between the wealthy and the poor. That’s precisely how it is today, except there are several billion more of us on the planet. And as populations grow, so will the numbers of homeless, uneducated, poor and jobless who’ll face discrimination and hunger. This is the natural order of the universe, and these inviolable laws of nature can’t be altered. The monotheism of Abraham couldn’t change this, nor could the gods of the pharaohs, the Romans and the Hindus. The minions of Christ failed. So did Allah and Mother Teresa. So did Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program; indeed, since 1964, our ghettos have gotten bigger and our poor have gotten poorer.
Many of the world’s brilliant politicians, activists and social scientists embrace the notion that the homeless, the starving and the uneducated can have roofs over their heads, full bellies and fair jobs. They believe poverty, discrimination and inequality can be eradicated. So Washington’s bureaucrats demand more money and programs, but they fail to realize that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That’s incredible stupidity. LBJ’s Great Society program and the 1996 welfare reform — intending to promote equality, eradicate poverty, rejuvenate cities, improve education and foster employment — were ignominious fiascos.
