Does charity enable laziness?

"Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it."

--John D. Rockefeller

You can teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime but if he doesn't have a line, hook and some bait all the teaching in the world is useless - he still won't be able to fish.

No, it does not. The Nordic people can hardly be called "lazy" and they have very strong social safety nets focused on healthcare, education and support of the family through subsidies for those who need them, including to mothers who wish to stay home and raise their children to school age. There's no such thing as poverty as a result in my home country and because the culture is so focused on working together and interdependence on your countryman/woman, people rarely "work the system". It's actually considered a duty to go back to work and contribute to the same system that helped you. As we say in my faith (which is highly cultural) "Everybody needs each other" and we live by that - even though it is a christian country. There is something to be said to hanging on to those old Heathen and Pagan values and traditions.

That's a good question. I'd say it would depend on the recipient. Some people constantly live off the charity of others for no other reason than laziness. But I would hope these sort are a small minority. Most people I know who have received "Charity" go on to lift themselves up and be self supporting. I think you might be confusing charity with entitlement.

No. That is the sort of remark made by people who think everyone should "work as hard as me".

I thought that charity was a christian virtue but I must admit, having heard the way many people talk about charitable giving, I think that should change.

Have you seen the women in third world countries who work about 50 times harder than whining people in first world countries and still can't feed their kids or provide any sort of education or medicine? Or kids that walk miles to get an education, no shoes. Or the kids that go down to the railway depot to do their homework under the outdoor flood lights because they have no electricity in their homes.

I hate people who try to dismiss charity so glibly.

That depends on the individual to whom it is given to. In some people it does, in others, they use it as motivation to get back on their own two feet and help others that might need it.

Charity is supposed to help people who really need help. If you're helping someone who could easily help themselves, then I wouldn't call that charity...That falls more into the realm of facilitating someone's dependence on you.

Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

from the looks of things yes,they just caught a man in louisville kentucky who started a charity,he was given 200,000 by the city to take care of the homeless,they found he gave himself a salery of 186,000 and rented a office space for himself with the rest,i will cook him later.,practice the holy rosary,practice makes perfect,we love you all,the holy family.

I think charity should be monitored and should be transparent... like religious organizations. like Vatican. I like the micro loan project in Africa where they give small loans to African women to buy micro thongs and their husband local home made whiskey.

hell yeah charities are some evil establishments son

orphans and disabled kids leech off our hard earned money

damn all underpriviliged peeple theyre annoying and thin