When Good Deeds Aren’t Really All That Good
I came across a headline today about Brad Pitt wanting to build 150 new homes in New Orleans for people displaced by Katrina. That news made me think of another home-building initiative that has been on my mind a lot lately.
Do any of you ever watch that show Extreme Home Makeover? The one with the really obnoxious guy who surprises a family, sends them away for a week or so, and when they come back has a new house all ready to go for them? I’ve wondered how much good those new homes actually do those people.
For instance, I saw one episode about a family of a dozen or so people living in what was essentially a shack outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. During the course of the show the crew essentially built these people an entire new house. Nay, a new mansion complete with something like 10 bedrooms, and a football field in the backyard (complete with artificial turf). But my question is this: How can people who could previously afford to live in no more than a shack suddenly afford to live in a mansion?
The new home is going to have a big property tax bill, not to mention big utility bills as well. So what happens when these people can’t afford the home any more? You know it has to happen. Will the television show continue to send them checks forever?
Who knows, but I think it illustrates a good point. Simply giving people things, whether it be a new home or a new car or even some new government entitlement, rarely makes them better. It may improve their situation a bit while whatever you’ve given them lasts, but the key to true success is self-sufficiency. If these people can’t provide for themselves, no amount of help in the form of giving them things is going to change that.
So someone like Brad Pitt may think he’s doing the people of New Orleans a favor by building all these new homes, but what good are the really going to be to people who apparently haven’t managed to put themselves back on their feet almost two and a half years after the original hurricane.
If they haven’t helped themselves already, chances are they won’t help themselves after others have helped them either.
