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Do people deserve help?

Minnow

If you're gonna dig, dig to the heavens!
What are your opinions on the following quote:

"People only deserve help if they seek it out."


I know this sounds potentially flame-worthy, but I think it's a serious question. Whatever you want to relate this to, socially, politically, personally, whatever.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Personally, my money situation is terrible.

Half the time I would go hungry or pay a late bill before asking for money cause that's just how I am. I don't like asking for help, and I would never apply for food stamps.

There are a lot of people like me, who need help and don't ask for it.

But there are people who take advantage of help and cheat the system. Not everyone who ask for help needs it and not everyone who doesn't ask for help doesn't need it.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

I don't understand why the topic title doesn't have a question mark. I'm staring at it. It's really annoying me.

But otherwise, what shit. Everyone 'deserves' to be helped; it's not anyone else's place to go oh well you're a dick so I'm going to leave you to die in a ditch and not feel bad about it. Being kind to others should really be a reflex.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

People deserve help, even if they don't seek it out, because there are many people who are unable or unwilling to do so.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Most people who don't seek out help don't do it because they were raised to not do so, most likely because they were born into poverty and their parents also bowed to authority instead of feeling a sense of entitlement. This causes a cycle of impoverished families producing children who grow up to become impoverished. This leads to a larger rich/poor schism, disappearing middle class, etc. etc.

Now, there are obviously people who take advantage of the system, who live off welfare and would never do a day's work in their lives, but most folks are just people who are stuck as impoverished, and are socially trained to not ask for help, or be forceful when asking for something.

Most welfare states have a higher standard of living and decreased unemployment than non-welfare states. Well, except Britain, which is actually a prime example of people taking advantage of the system. However, in most cases (Germany, Canada, France, Denmark) good welfare, free healthcare, and other social programs really are effective and do give opportunities to those who normally would not get them.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

it's worth pointing out the difference between 'deserving help' and 'needing help'; everybody is entitled to aid. Always. Regardless of their actions, decisions or persona, everyone deserves help. Whether someone needs it is a different matter! Whether they ask for it is irrelevant.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

People deserve help until they blow it, in my opinion. Everyone is entitled to certain benefits, but once you cheat the system and break the trust, people should have the right to excommunicate you. There's nothing worse than a parasite leeching on a system that is already struggling to gather the necessary resources to make ends meet. It can't be the case that people who work hard to get their benefits fair and square can't take advantages of the same aid that is given to those who don't put effort into being a part of society.

We all want aid, but there needs to be some goodwill. I'm not a fucking charity institution and I have limited resources. We already lack the food to feed everyone on this planet. We can't just start giving things away. We don't have that luxury.

Investors don't invest in people who they don't trust to give them their money back either, or in a business that is not going to be profitable in some way or another (reputation bonus counts as profit). This is entirely normal. I do help people, but eventually, there has to be some merit in helping them, or else it makes aid entirely pointless. I'm not gonna spend my cash financing the antics of people who just live to get drunk on weekends or don't have the balls to pursue education or a job.

By the way, this does not go for disabled people. Obviously if you are disabled you should be entitled to all the benefits you would need to make up for the loss of your being disabled. If it is impossible, it's just humane to give those people the benefits they would need to live a normal life like everybody else.

I don't believe in an equal distribution of resources, I believe in an equal distribution of chances. Those who take their chances deserve their help and those who blow their chances have only themselves to thank for it. There has to be some personal responsibility involved.

A priori I assume everyone has a chance to do right though. They'll first have to prove me wrong before I stop giving.
 
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Re: Do people deserve help.

Tarvos said it pretty damn well for me, so I don't feel the need to go wax lyrical about this topic. Everyone deserves equal opportunity to succeed and live a happy life. If they waste their opportunity, that's on them.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

I don't see where seeking out help is in any way relevant to whether you "deserve" it or not. The question makes it sound like not seeking help makes you unworthy of it, which doesn't make sense no matter how I slice it. You can debate whether people deserve help if they abuse it, and whether people who don't want help should be helped anyway, but this question just seems bizarre.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Yeah people don't seek out help for a variety of reasons, it doesn't mean that they don't deserve it.
I, for example, had an abusive boyfriend. For two years, he treated me like his own personal punching bag. And I was too terrified to seek help.
The idea that someone could actually think that that kind of situation means that you don't desever help actually makes my head hurt.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

As others have pointed out, many people are too proud to seek out assistance even if they are in desperate need. Also, a lot of people aren't even aware of the benefits they're entitled to - in the UK, £10.5 billion worth of benefits goes unclaimed (a fun fact to throw around when people moan about herp derp benefit scroungers).

Politics aside, if someone is in trouble then the responsible thing is to offer your help. If a physically disabled guy gets on a bus, you don't wait for him to ask you for your seat, you get off your damn ass and offer it to him. That's just common courtesy. Obviously if the guy refuses your offer you can't force him to take your seat, but at least you gave him the choice.

We already lack the food to feed everyone on this planet.
Nitpicking, but that claim has been extensively disproved. There's enough food being produced to feed everyone, the problem is unfair distribution of said food.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Those are predictions from 10 years ago. I am not sure whether they still hold. Anything more recent?
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

In my opinion, pride is a worthless, useless mental facade. It started WWI, which led to WWII, and the Holocaust, which led to us giving survivors there homeland, which led to...
Bottomline: If a person is too proud to ask for help, don't be surprised that they refuse when you ask
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Those are predictions from 10 years ago. I am not sure whether they still hold. Anything more recent?
Well, nothing specifically relating to food supply but population growth is slowing.

In my opinion, pride is a worthless, useless mental facade.
But people need a certain amount of pride in order to function. Without self-esteem, without the ability to say "this is what I've achieved, isn't it great?" we succumb to depression. Overweening pride is bad, yes, but the emotion itself is not neccessarily evil.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Well, even if growth slows down, there is still growth. But my point is, resources are a scarce good whichever way you put it. And like I said, if you work harder, you earn more resources - such is life.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Those are predictions from 10 years ago. I am not sure whether they still hold. Anything more recent?

Well, my family owns a plot of land, about 11*22 m, including the house and everything. We have tenants who live in a suite. We, including the tenants, are just about self-sufficient for the entire year, as we freeze some vegetables for the Winter. That's 8 people living off of 242 sq. m of land, coming to just over 30 sq. m of land per person.

There are just under 7 000 000 000 people in the world. Multiply that by 30.25 sq. m, and we need 211 750 000 000 sq. m of land to sustain the world. That's about the size of the UK. So if everyone in the UK suddenly started farming or something the whole world would have enough food.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Not all land is arable, though, and it matters what crops you grow.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

I believe that a lot of people who don't ask for help need it just as much, if not more than people who do ask for help because those are the people who are trying their hardest to stand up on their own two feet. Also, I agree with Phantom that a lot of people who ask for help try to take advantage of the people who are willing to help them and cheat the system.
 
Re: Do people deserve help.

Not all land is arable, though, and it matters what crops you grow.

True. But I'm sure there's more than 211 750 sq.km of farmed land. And I imagine that farmland is spread over many regions such as that crops are grown in suitable climates. Anyways, my point is that there is enough food in production to adequately feed everybody in the world.

According to Wikipedia: "In 2008, the world's total arable land amounted to 13,805,153 km²".
 
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