1824 Law of the State of New York - "Paupers to be sent to the poorhouse"
"And be it further enacted, That whenever, after the said poor-house shall be completed, any poor person in any city or town of the same county shall apply for relief, the said overseer of the poor of such city or town shall make application to a justice of the peace of said county,...that such person is in such indigent circumstances....it shall be [the justice's] duty....to issue his warrant under his hand, directed to any constable of such city or town, whose duty it shall be to execute the same, thereby requiring said constable forthwith to take such poor person....and remove him or her to said poor-house, and there deliver him or her to the care of the keeper of the same poor-house, to be relieved and provided for as his or her necessities shall require; and he or she shall be discharged therefrom by order of the superintendents of the same [poor]-house, or some one of them:"
-1824 Law Concerning Paupers in the State of New York
Our modern day society is way too forgiving of the poor and the indigent. We have government progrms like Social Security, Unemplyment insurance, Workman's Compensation, Medicare, Medicaid, and the like. Government programs like these tend to reward poverty rather than punishing it. Our government SHOULD have programs that deal with poverty. However, they should be completely focused on PUNISHING poverty rather than rewarding it. Do you recall LBJ's "War on Poverty" from the 1960's? It was a totally wrongheaded policy because it expanded welfare and easy relief from the burdens of poverty. Now - I DO believe we should have a war on poverty, but it should be EXACTLY that - a WAR! Just like the war on terror! We don't reward terrorism, do we? We fight it and try to destroy it. The war on poverty should be the same. While we can't destroy the poor just for being poor, we can certainly execute punishments on them as a means of forcing them into a more proporous Christian lifestyle, and publicly bestowing condemnations on them that are consistent with God's will. And how do we do this? The Poorhouse! Yes, the poorhouse! Once again, another great example of how the cure to our societal ills can be found not by secular progressive thinking but from looking back to the days of yore! The poorhouse is truly the proper solution for the indigent. Can't pay your bills? Can't put food on the table? Can't keep the heat on? Well then, it's off to the poor-house with ye!!
The poorhouse will not encourage poverty and dependence on the state, but it rightly will punish it! The poorhouse is not a fun place to be, but a horrible sad place of suffering. Notwithstanding the above provision of the New York statute which specifies some relief and provision of the minimum necessities, I can assure you that in reality such poorhouses were considered to be the ultimate form of suffering and humiliation for the poor whoose only other alternative was DEATH, judgement, and eternal damnation for their lives of sinful indolence! They were meant to discourage and punish indolence and poverty rather than encourage and reward it. They were meant as places where desperate wretched paupers and orphan children could be shut away from the refined, delicate eyes of the virtuous and the properous, and to warn those of the industrious working classes that they had better remain so, lest they by consigned to the dark gloomy halls of the poor-house! Where meals consist of meager plain gruel, where you will be put to work on the treadmills, grinding up bones and rocks! Where you will be given the minimum amount of gruel required to stay alive. Where your poorhouse clothes consist of coarse cloth sacks, that provide neither comfort nor warmth. Where disease, plague, and small-pox abounds! Where whippings are dispensed for any infraction whatsoever! Where loved ones are kept isolated from one another at ALL times. These are just some of the many attributes of the poorhouse, and it should always remain the one and only solution to dealing with not just the poor and the indigent, but also the insane, the sickly, the drunkards, the abandoned orphan children, and the demented elderly! That must be their lot!
This article is immensely interesting, as it shows what the good Doctor and I have been preaching since the beginning of this site -- that Children are precious creatures that deserve special protections and training. As the article describes, children are inherently more prejudiced than adults. Of course, it being an article for print in the liberal media, this is considered bad thing; however, what it should tell us is that children have the capacity to be the best and brightest and most loyal Christian soldiers, for they are less corruptible by the homosexuality, witchcraft and other various forms of moral relativism. That is why we should embrace children's prejudices and reinforce them such that they are prejudiced for the right things -- namely that the Bible is the word of God and all sinners must and will be punished, in this life or the next. This, of course, can be done with mandatory Bible readings and trips to the whipping room; but also, now that this Harvard study proves what the Good Doctor and I have already known, we should garner more support for special school programs, where non-conformists (precursors to the homosexuals and witches that will arise within children once they leave the tender loving care of their church and parents) are segregated and humiliated whenever their paths cross with the good Christian students. Rather than "Home Room," there should be a special period where the good Christians get to go to the non-conformist classrooms and spit on them and laugh at them, building a sense of camaraderie among the Christian children and a sense of worthlessness among the non-conformists. This way, those that can be led back to the Lord surely will, while the irredeemable will suffer. This, of course, is just one of many things that could and must be done to ensure that no child will be left behind except those that deserve to be.
