You say you want a revolution...

I’m finding more and more that my ideologies do not match up with how I think things should be practiced. On the one hand I agree with Nic and Adam that we need to take a radical approach. The New Hope program is an improvement from what it originally was, and by all means we shouldn’t go back to the original system. However, it’s a very small improvement and does not treat the cause, which I believe is Capitalism. We have such disparity because of our capitalist ideals, and without a radical change to a more socialist society, there will always be poverty and Welfare systems are a small help. There are so many loopholes in Welfare systems. My problem with Welfare in general is that it seems impossible for the government to really decide who deserves to receive money. It’s a system that is easy to abuse, as some people are able to get continual hand outs from the government and spend them on enormous flat screen televisions, gaming systems, and alcohol. On the other hand, some people who are truly working their hardest are unable to receive anything. The problem is that it’s impossible to expect a huge system to be able to accurately determine how to distribute their limited funds in a way that benefits the most people. I don’t think there is any way to create a Welfare system that doesn’t have any loopholes, or that would truly do its job. Thus, I come to the conclusion that we need a radical change and should drop our capitalistic ways and give the power to the people.
When I look at the situation practically, however, I wonder if this is another case where, as John Barry put it, the perfect is the enemy of the good. We can’t just wait around with our flawed Welfare system refusing to improve it until we become socialists. We should constantly strive for a better system, and it may just be the case that we’ll have to move gradually. As much as I love the idea of a revolution, I believe that in the meantime we should still try to improve our Welfare system incrementally.