Blackstone on Duty to the Poor

 The law not only regards life and member, and protects every man in the enjoyment of them, but also furnishes him with every thing necessary for their support. For there is no man so indigent or wretched, but he may demand a supply sufficient for all the necessities of life from the more opulent part of the community, by means of the several statutes enacted for the relief of the poor, of which in their proper places. A humane provision; yet, though dictated by the principles of society, discountenanced by the Roman laws. For the edicts of the Emperor Constantine, commanding the public to maintain the children of those who were unable to provide for them, in order to prevent the murder and exposure of infants, an institution founded on the same principle as our foundling hospitals, though comprised in the Theodosian code,(y) were rejected in Justinian’s collection.

And generally, the conservative/liberal division throughout our history has been:

1. how much aid to provide;

2. What is the most efficient way to do so; and

3. What should we do to discourage indolence and encourage self-sufficiency.

I Wish That I Had Been Paid That Well

$437,000 for 8 months of work.  Some fatcat CEO?  No.  9/22/17 APTN News:

The former Liberal candidate appointed by Indigenous-Crown Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett to conduct consultations on First Nation child welfare issues was given a $437,000 contract to do eight months of work, according to internal documents.

Bennett appointed Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, chair of truth and reconciliation at Lakehead University, as her special representative on child welfare in August 2016. The appointment, which ended on March 31, was made following the January 2016 ruling from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal which found Ottawa discriminated against First Nation children by under-funding child welfare services on-reserve.

Chair of truth and reconciliation?  How do I create such a program at my college?

Wesley-Esquimaux, who ran for the Liberals in 2011, was required to conduct consultations on child welfare, act as a mediator and conduct media interviews and produce a report on the issue, according to the contract obtained by NDP MP Charlie Angus.

A lot of 80 hour days with sweat and suffering, I am sure.

Hat tip Small Dead Animals.

I Have Noticed an Increase in Morbidly Obese People the Last Few Years

And this is apparently real.  6/1/17 USA Today:

Food stamp enrollment also skyrocketed after Obama effectively suspended the three-month limit for able-bodied adults without dependents to collect food stamps. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of able-bodied recipients doubled, according to the Congressional Research Service. Canceling the work requirement made food stamps far more attractive to 20-somethings. In many states, people can apply for benefits online — making it much easier than going to a job interview. The Government Accountability Office reported in 2012: "Local caseworkers across several states... described an increasing trend of single people aged 22 applying as their own [food stamp] households." The Food Stamp Poster Boy of 2013 was Jason Greenslate, a 29-year-old Californian surfer who declared that he avoids paying work and uses his monthly food stamp allotment to purchase as much sushi and gourmet lobster as $200 can buy. Then it’s off to the beach. Greenslate touted his gourmet purchases "all paid for by our wonderful tax dollars... It's free food. It's awesome."...

The most important reason to curtail food stamp enrollment is because the program is a dietary disaster. Walter Willett, chair of Harvard University’s Department of Nutrition, observed in 2015, "We've analyzed what [food stamp] participants are eating and it's horrible food. It's a diet designed to produce obesity and diabetes." A 2017 study published in BMC Public Health found that food stamp recipients were twice as likely to be obese as eligible non-recipients. This confirms a 2015 USDA report which revealed that food stamp recipients are far more likely to be obese than eligible non-recipients (40% vs. 32%).

A 2016 USDA report revealed that soft drinks and other sweetened beverages are the most common purchase in food stamp households, accounting for almost 10% of monthly expenditures. "Desserts, salty snacks, candy and sugar" account for another 10% of food stamp expenditures. The USDA report confirms earlier research on federally-funded bad diets. (The USDA and the Obama administration helped block a 2013 congressional proposal to disclose how recipients actually spend food stamps.

Part of what provoked this post is that my wife and I were in the Idaho Youth Ranch thrift store the other day.  (My wife started shopping in thrift stores when we living on one paycheck in California.  This isn't hard in the USA, but in California?  Now it just goes with her pith helmet labelled "Bargain Hunter."  I was looking for some throwaway shoes for an upcoming asphalt resurfacing project.)  There were a couple of heartbreaking examples of at least morbidly obese women in there.  Is there a category above morbidly obese?

They were both in those power wheelchairs that the government pays for through Medicaid and Medicare.  They were Michelin Man rolls of fat, in their 40s and 60s (I think), and heavily tatted.  From listening to their conversation in the furniture section, it was apparent that they were sharing a dwelling: whether mother-daughter, roommates, or lovers, was not clear.  I am sure that lifting these huge masses out of their chairs must be a major and unpleasant undertaking.  Of course, limited walking doubtless contributed to their weight, and certainly many other health problems.  They looked very similar to the people in Wall-E,  

Why do people let themselves get this bad off?  This requires an enormous amount of overeating.  Several studies show a strong correlation between childhood sexual abuse and obesity in women.
Jennifer Alvarez,Joanne Pavao, Nikki Baumrind, and Rachel Kimerling, “The Relationship BetweenChild Abuse and Adult Obesity Among California Women,” American Journal of Preventative Medicine 33(1) [2007], 31; Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, “The Health Effects of Childhood Abuse: Four Pathways by whichAbuse Can Influence Health,” Child Abuse & Neglect [2002], 6/7, 715-730.

Why?  Lesbians are disproportionately obese: Helen A.Smith,  Nina Markovic,Michelle E.Danielson, AliciaMatthews, Ada Youk Evelyn O.Talbott, CynthiaLarkby and Tonda Hughes, “Sexual Abuse, Sexual Orientation, and Obesity in Women,” 19 Journal of Womens Health 19:1525–1532 (Aug. 2010)..  Regardless of sexual orientation, building walls of fat around you is the single most effective way of making men not see you as a sexual object.  Tragically, it also means that men who might be kind and decent people will not likely get close enough for you to find out that their qualities.