In the Spirit of Christmas

[ndrosen]

Reason online has an article about how feeding the homeless can be against the law. Libertarians are not necessarily short on compassion, especially when authoritarian bullies enact laws against it. One member of the helping professions is quoted as saying that they're not so much against feeding the homeless as assuring that the homeless are offered other social services with their food. As one of the readers who commented on the article said, nothing is preventing him from offering those social services to people who want them.

Comments

[kk1raven]

I find it highly suspicious when people support laws that criminalize helping the homeless then try to claim that it is for their own good. I think there are some reasons to maintain some oversight of large-scale operations that are handing out food but for the most part laws of this type seem to be directed at preventing attempts to help, not at food safety. I think their intent is mostly to try to make the homeless go away.