I was directed to this piece earlier, and I had to comment on one phrase that struck me: "Granted, neither the War on Poverty nor Title X fell under McNamara’s purview. Yet both domestic undertakings were inconceivable apart from the mentality that the Whiz Kid from Ford personified, an attitude which presumes that there are no social, political, or economic problems that the discipline of public policy, when rationally pursued and applied by the best and brightest, cannot fix."

When I was teaching sociology, the topic of socialism came up.  I knew that at least one student would be supportive of socialism, and I was right...one was.  I was, however, unprepared for his illogical arguments.  I mentioned that the motives of certain socialist programs were noble, but history shows that governments cannot be trusted to care for its citizenry; such endeavors always lead to great suffering by the citizenry.  The student, we'll call him Ethan, responded, "But it doesn't have to be that way." 

I responded, "How so?" 

"If you have the best and the brightest plan it out, it will work fine."

"And what happens when those 'best and brightest' die, or are replaced?  What happens when the 'best and brightest' create themselves out of a nice cushy government job and don't want to leave it?  What happens when the politicians in power realize they have created an entire class of citizens entirely dependent upon them?  Will it work fine then?"

"Probably not, but those things don't have to happen."

"But in every single case in which the government has taken it upon itself to care for the people, it has happened.  In the issue of chances it will happen, the percentages tell us that 100% of the time, it will happen."

"But it doesn't have to."

Such an attitude is clearly illogical and not rational.  It may sound great to have the "best and brightest" in government to solve problems, but not everything can be solved by fiat, by force, by law, with money, or with influence.  Often what is needed is love.  Government is incapable of showing love.  Government can only deal with statistics, not individuals.  A government program is evaluated by the percentages that a problem has gone down by their handouts; a charitable program is evaluated by how many people were truly helped.  Government creates/mandates homeless shelters, but charities find them clothes, provide health care, and make them feel human again.  Poverty cannot be defeated with redistributionism, or socialism, or communism.  As God Himself says, "There will always be the poor."    Perhaps we should treat the poor as our neighbors and friends, rather than statistics.