Doing good to the poor...

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. 

In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. 

And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. 

-- Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, writing under the pseudonym "Arator", in The London Chronicle, November 1766

Fascinates me how the American founders seem to have a better grasp on human nature than many of today's so-called social scientists.