Altruism, the moral code that places need as the standard for entitlement, has a devastating effect on the very people it is intended to help.  As a believer in free will, I can see that need has a self-fulfilling characteristic. If a person wants to, by their own actions they can place themselves in a position of need simply by continually spending all they earn. If being broke is the requirement for more money handouts, it follows that the sooner one is broke the sooner one can apply for more funds.

It, altruism,  skews the mind, standing reason on its head. If one wants to truly help those who have little, then do everything possible to not impede their road to success, their path to productivity. offer opportunity rather than hand-outs.

“In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer. There is no country in the world where so many provisions are established for them; so many hospitals to receive them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained by voluntary charities; so many alms-houses for the aged of both sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and thankful; and do they use their best endeavours to maintain themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burthen? — On the contrary, I affirm that there is no country in the world in which the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The day you passed that act, you took away from before their eyes the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, by giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in age or sickness. In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of idleness, and you should not now wonder that it has had its effect in the increase of poverty.”

— Benjamin Franklin, 1766 … in London.

So just as being productive can be considered applying your effort constructively, being needy is often the result of misdirecting your effort toward a path of destruction. Altruism lives and thrives on the belief that only some individuals can be productive, that all too many people are incapable of leading self-supporting lives. That begs the question, how could the world be as bountiful with man-made goods if that were so?

Only by giving a human being the possibility of acting in a manner that gives them pride can they view others as their equals, as a potential source of values to trade for. Altruism is the beggar’s hovel, the place of poverty, the place of self-loathing, the place of despondency. It is time to view that evil for what it is. … call it out and  … stridently reject it.