[HardDrive]

First off, I plead with you to keep this thread civil. I posted it in the general forum because I would like to hear from as many people as possible. If you want to rant about political parties, then start your own thread in PARF.

In the past 10 years, I've made a huge effort to improve my spiritual life. I don't think my own path is of particular importance here, but I've spent a lot of time thinking about being more charitable, and I've turned that into action. I've worked in soup kitchens, held food drives, and tried to teach my daughter about having compassion for those with less.

But I have to say, this has not always led in the direction I had expected. I have found myself far less liberal that I used to be. And frankly, I've grown quite skeptical of many aid programs. But its a very mixed bag. And its confusing.

Do we want children to go hungry? No. Of course not. But what about a 25 year old able bodied man? Should he be given 3 meals a day by society? Should he be given a place to live?

On some level, I feel like you're robbing the 25 year old of something. I know it sounds cruel, but is it really the compassionate thing to do if you rob a person of the motivation to improve themselves?

We have millions of children growing up in the richest country in the world, and the message they are getting is pretty clear, 'failure IS an option'. Is that the right thing to do?

I feel like many of the things I was raised to believe are 'compassionate' as not compassion at all, they are enslavement.

And what about personal charity? At what point does helping someone out rob them of something? The more I look back on my childhood, the more I view my own upbringing as quite spoiled, at least from a financial perspective. And it was very corrosive. It was only when I was on my own and earning my own way in the world that I found I could gain some self respect.

I'm not asking for a single answer here, because I haven't really posted a single, cogent question. But I would love to know what you think about the subject.

When does one cross over the line from being compassionate to harming someone?