[legion]

A good friend (actually, more of a mentor) went on a trip from Texas to the tip of South America and back after college (30 years ago). He had no real plan of how to accomplish this. He took very little money and a book bag full of necessities. He left the U.S. a hardcore liberal. He arrived back two years later a hardcore conservative.

The defining moment for him was early on his trip in southern Mexico. He had already figured out that begging got him no where. Instead he learned to offer a day's labor for a day's food--whatever the village needed done. He wold try to set aside some food from each meal. After a few days in one place, he would walk on to the next town and repeat the process.

Anyway, he entered one village that was barely subsisting. He did his day of labor and sat down to a meal at the end of the day. The custom in this village was for the men to eat first--however much they wanted. Then the women ate. Then the children. At first he thought this was cruel. This village was on the verge of starvation and the children would often go hungry while the adults ate.

Then he "got" it. If the men were to starve, the people who provided most of the food would be gone. They would not have the energy to provide food for the women and children. The women prepared most of the food, and so were also important to the process. The children provided nothing. eeding the children first would be a death sentence for the whole village, but feeding the men first would at least ensure that someone would survive a lean season.

If you extrapolate this example to current social policy in the U.S., the children (those who produce nothing) are being fed first. The men (the producers) are being left the children's scraps. Let's see how long our village survives.