Abstract

Marvin Olasky argues that compassion once meant a reciprocal relationship between those who provided charity and those who received it. This complex relationship has been undermined by the state's monopoly of welfare, which, in the name of compassion, eliminates people's sense of compassion. Olasky's insistence that private and public actions be analyzed in isolation from each other is unrealistic. The real question is what works and what doesn't. Americans need a way to use government to strengthen private institutions such as the family. Then we can find solutions to welfare problems that respond to practical, not moral and theological, concerns.