Is there justice in social justice?

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Pope Francis has made your exact point, pointing out that his grand parents’ generation bravely committed to marriage in spite of the hardships of raising a family on sparse resources.

I think no-fault divorce has greatly increased the insecurity. Too many spouses are abandoned with no fault of theirs to point to. My brothers saw it happen to their friends and it definitely affected them to see that.
 
ontheway1 said:
Only people in the richest country in the world feel that they can’t afford to raise a family.
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But there is a key point – in those countries that have large families, children are expected to support their parents. Indeed, in some countries children can be sold to pay off the parents’ debts.

When I was Deputy Operations Officer for the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea, my room in the BOQ was next to the Catholic chaplain’s room. He was deeply involved with the problems of child prostitution, and he could tell stories that would curl your hair.
 
I don’t doubt the observation you make, but I am not sure what the point is. Are you suggesting that third world parents raise families to sell off their kids? Although I am sure that such things do happen, but certainly this is not the main reason for raising a family.
Regarding expectations of children in this country, until very recently, there was some expactation that the children will help their aging parents. In some families this is still the norm. Has something to do with love, respect, Christian values, etc.
 
ontheway1 said:
I don’t doubt the observation you make, but I am not sure what the point is. Are you suggesting that third world parents raise families to sell off their kids?
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The point is that there is a different attitude regarding children in many third world countries. Children are assets, just like money in the bank, and are expected to support their parents – even to the point of being responsible for the parents’ debts.

In this country, children are in a sense a burden – parents must raise and educate their children with little expectation of return.

Those attitudes affect the size of families.
 
vern_humphrey said:
Children are assets, just like money in the bank, and are expected to support their parents – even to the point of being responsible for the parents’ debts.
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Here in America, we would never do that!

Uh-oh.

We would. We have. It’s called the National Debt.

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This is from the article cited above:
“Beware the poverty of Judas.” What does this mean? Fundamentally it means that the care of the poor can sometimes be used in an attempt to water down Christian doctrine and the priority of worship. The Social Gospel, if we are not careful, can demand that we compromise Christian dogma and the priority of proclaiming the gospel.
 
WE might also consider this, from the Epistle to Philemon:

10 I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment,
11who was once useless to you but is now useful) to [both] you and me.
12 I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
13 I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel,
14 but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.

All to often, we forget that charity should be voluntary, not forced. Pushing for government programs often results in forced charity – and what grace and merit is there in being forced to give?
 
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A good friend says that such straightforward common sense is why Monsignor Pope is not a Bishop.
 
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To me,the “Social Justice warriors” are sometimes right and sometimes wrong.

For example I agree with things like that there shouldn’t be Corporate executives getting million dollar bonuses whilst Aboriginals are living in serious poverty and having social problems like alcohol abuse in their communities.
 
OK, but that’s like saying that compared to the same Aboriginals, you earn way too much money and someone (and who knows who this will be) should take this money away from you as well and have it redistributed. (how is this going to be managed?)
You will say that you are not a millionaire, but to someone who lives on $2 a day, you are. So, fork over your cash.
See what I mean?
I agree that there is way too much money at the top, but somehow or other all redistributing projects usually result in the working class paying for all the social engineering experiments.
 
ontheway1 said:
but somehow or other all redistributing projects usually result in the working class paying for all the social engineering experiments.
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Can you please elaborate on what are social engineering experiments?
 
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Sure. Money supporting single parents is one. Example. An affluent friend’s daughter is about to be married, but gets pregnant first. The wedding is postponed so she can get money as a single parent from the government. Rich mom is very proud.
Neighbor’s sister has 5 or six children, from several fathers. Entirely supported by the government and sees no incentive to change her status in any way. She would lose all of it if she chose to marry one of the fathers.

School bussing designed to provide educational opportunities to the poor, resulted in gutted American cities, creating urban flight and no improvement in education.

Have these programs resulted in positive change? Perhaps, but the results are negligible and the unintended consequences produce much larger problems.
 
Thanks.
I think usually it is better to give a hand up rather than hand out otherwise it can lead to the mentalities like mentioned in your first two examples.

I live in Australia and here even some Aborigines in poverty have said they feel it’s an insult to receive welfare instead of actually helping their communities to help themselves through jobs etc.

At the same time,there needs to be a safety net for the genuine people with disabilities who cannot work.

What is school bussing and urban flight please?
 
Rozellelily said:
What is school bussing and urban flight please?
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school bussing was a failed attempt at forced integration. Well intentioned but failure in practice.

urban flight is when the middle class flees the city for the suburbs and the city loses it’s tax payers and retains those who most need services.
 
Thanks @Theo520

So it sounds like this bussing program was well meaning but ultimately just resulted in waste of funds?
 
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