TGC Economist on Welfare System

All right, all right, let's get started today. You know, yesterday's video was not very popular.

And that tends to happen when I talk about Bitcoin. For whatever reason, this audience is not that interested in Bitcoin.

I get it. I get it. It's not a big deal. But a lot of comments were kind of, you know, hitting on the point that really the article kind of sidesteps a lot of the key issues.

I remember Woke Preacher Clips, who's pro -Bitcoin. He just couldn't believe that you could write an article like this and not talk about the

Federal Reserve and inflation and money printing. I agree. I mean, you know, when you're talking about why people invest in Bitcoin and like all of that, like this is a key aspect of it.

Like our current financial system is completely immoral. And it's not even debatable that our current financial system, our current currency, it's an immoral currency.

And he's over here like, well, you know, but they might use it for illicit reasons. He just comes out and says that. And he's like, and he certainly makes it seem like there's no legitimate reason to want to have an alternative to the

Federal Reserve. I don't know. He doesn't come out and say that. But it certainly seems to me that the whole point of this article is to prop up the system that we have right now.

And anyway, it just it certainly seems like a very incomplete article. It's just crazy.

I cracked a joke with Woke Preacher Clips. I was like, yeah, you know, you know, Bitcoin is really unstable, unlike the dollar, which is steadily and stably decreasing in value 10 to 15 percent per year.

Yeah. You know that that's that's the gold standard. You really want some steady decreasing in value.

That's what you're looking for in a currency. But anyway, but if you remember at the end of that video, he

I noticed he wrote an article about welfare, which I thought would be fun to go into it. Now, I haven't read the entire article.

I read the first paragraph or two, and it seems to me I can't be sure because I haven't read the article.

But it seems to me that Greg Phelan, he's a professor of economics.

He certainly seems to be taking heart the the Ruslan KD School of Controversy.

Did you see this one? Let me get this over in just one second here. All right.

Ruslan KD yesterday put out a video and the video is called

How to Share a Hard Truth Without Getting Cancelled. Ruslan KD is going to show you how to share a hard truth without getting cancelled.

That's hilarious. That's like Urkel trying to teach you how to sing baritone.

It's like, oh, yeah, here's how you do it. What hard truths?

The man's never taken a hard stance in his entire life. He's going to teach you how to share a hard truth.

I mean, the way to share a hard truth without getting cancelled. Well, you don't. That's the Ruslan school.

Apparently, Greg Phelan. By the way, I have not seen this video. I have no intention of watching it.

My brother said that it's decent. Actually, the video is decent, but it makes a couple of errors and stuff like that.

But I just thought it was funny. I mean, Ruslan, hard truth and Ruslan. Those things don't go together. Anyway, let's read about the welfare system by Greg Phelan.

Here's the question. Can you help me understand the welfare system? I want to love the poor by providing help when it's needed, along with incentives for them to pursue the dignity of work.

I don't think our welfare system does a good job at this. Would it be better or even possible to scrap it, let the church take over helping the poor?

How can I be wise about this? What should we advocate? These are good questions, by the way.

Let me step out of the article for a second. The questioner is asking the exact right question.

Would it be better? What is the... He doesn't actually say this, but what does the word of God say? I think that's what he's driving at when he says, how can

I be wise about this? So when it comes to helping the poor, what does the word of God say?

What should we advocate? What should we be aiming for? This is so important, guys, because if we don't think the

Bible says anything about this, then we're not... How can we be on the same page as far as what we're aiming for?

You hit what you aim for, and if we're all aiming for different things, we're not going to hit anything.

The church needs to get on the same page when it comes to helping the poor, and the things that are allowed, the things that are lawful, the things that are just, the things that are unjust, and luckily for us, and it's not luck because I don't believe in luck, but providentially,

God gave us a ton of information on how to help the poor. There are many laws in the law of God that show us how to help the poor.

One of the examples is you don't cut to the edge of your field so that the poor can go in and glean some food if they need it, and then they can bring it out and stuff like that.

That's awesome. We can draw so much general equity from that law. And then

Paul, likewise, gives us a lot of stuff. You don't work, you don't eat, that kind of stuff.

There's just so much that we can glean from the Bible. Those are two of my favorite, but there's just so many more.

This is not an area that the Scripture is vague about. This is not an area that the

Scripture is silent about. These are great questions. So let's hope that Greg Phelan can actually share the hard truth about welfare and not worry so much about getting canceled.

That's another thing I thought was funny about this. Who cares about if you get canceled or not? I don't know. Anyway, let's see what

Greg Phelan has to say. Good questions! Hey, I said that, Greg. You copied me. Maybe I copied you, because you wrote the article first.

Anyway, God commands us to care for the poor, and Jesus' first sermon proclaimed good news to the poor.

Still, actually caring for the poor is difficult and complicated. Maybe he did take the

Ruslan school of how to share a hard truth, y 'all, because it's nuanced and it's like complicated and, you know,

I could see one way and not the other. Like he really did take, maybe he is the Ruslan school. This is the Ruslan school.

All right. The causes of poverty are complex and efforts to alleviate or prevent poverty often backfire.

The real question is not whether the church should replace the welfare system. I really don't see that happening.

I, you know, I hate when people answer questions like this. It's like he, the questioner asked, should the church take over helping the poor?

He said, would it be better? Would it be possible? And the answer to the question is the real question is not that.

I'm going to answer whatever the heck I want to answer. I hate that. Like, can you just have a little respect for the people that are asking you questions?

I just don't get that. Let's continue. I really don't see that happening, given the scope of the need and the level of coordination and organization involved, but whether the welfare system interferes with the ability of the church to do its job,

I don't think it really does. So he's shifting the question here and he's saying, look, caring for the poor is too complicated.

And look, I mean, look at this chart. I mean, Medicaid, there's SSI, there's

SNAP benefits, there's school food, there's WIC, like it's just way complicated. And the only one capable of doing this complicated job is our

Lord, the state, is essentially what he says. God didn't prepare us for this, like God didn't give us the tools we need to take care of the poor.

It's complicated. I mean, the causes of poverty are complicated. This is so, ah, this is frustrating.

So the guy changes the question. He says, your question's wrong. Your question is a good question, but it's wrong.

The real question is, does the welfare system interfere with the ability for the church to do its job?

And I don't think it does. So right off the bat, he just decides not to answer the actual question.

I'll answer your question. You know, whoever did ask this question, you know, hopefully you find this video. It would be absolutely 100 % better for the church to take over helping the poor and also individuals, even if they're not in the church, to take over helping for the poor because the state, according to the scripture, is not to be doing this kind of work.

This is not the work of this state. And so it would be better in the sense of number one, it's more faithful to God and God blesses faithfulness.

So we need to do what God says, even if pragmatically we think maybe it won't work. It will work, but also it's better just because you're obeying

God. So that's, it's definitely better. It's definitely what you should be aiming for. And that's the other thing.

This questioner is asking him, what should we be aiming for? And he said, well, I'm not going to answer that. I'm going to ask a different question.

Does it hurt the sharing the gospel? Like that's just so twisted questioner.

You're asking good questions. And I don't just mean that as lip service, like the author of this article did. Well, good question, but I'm going to ask a better,

I'm going to answer a better one. Like that's just ridiculous. No, the scripture tells us exactly what to do for the poor, right?

You give, if people who have share with people who don't have, if you have food, share it with someone who doesn't.

If you have clothes, share it with someone who doesn't. And I think many Christians practice this right now. Now the state, the way that they do things, they incentivize poverty, they incentivize not working, they incentivize all kinds of stuff.

So they do a terrible job at it. And it creates people that give the state sort of this savior complex, sort of like unfortunately the author of this article, they think the state is the only one competent enough to actually take care of the poor.

If I obey the state, all will be well with me. So the state kind of sets up this slavery system.

It's no good. It's absolutely a net negative for the people that it proclaims to help.

No question about it. You don't have to be nuanced about something that's so obvious. Medicaid, Medicare, SNAP, Head Start, WIC, all of this stuff actually hurts the very people it claims to help.

Let's continue. First, there remain so many ways a church can support the poor and the needy.

The overwhelming bulk of welfare is medical insurance, disability benefits, housing aid, and money for food.

That still leaves a tremendous variety of needs unmet. So his article here is saying, well, you know, the government, the great government who's competent, they have all this stuff.

It's a heavy burden. But the church gets the crumbs. We can still help out here on the fringes. You know, the complicated stuff, only our

Lord the state can do that. But the easy stuff, there's a lot of holes the church can kind of fill. We've got the crumbs, the crumbs of the day.

No, no, no. That's totally ridiculous. He goes on, when I was in graduate school, I helped lead a church in which most households received welfare.

Our church never ran out of ways to support our congregants. Welfare provides money for food, rent, and health care.

But Christians recognize that human flourishing extends beyond these necessities. Welfare benefits don't take away the need for job training, basic life skills, access to education, rides to job interviews, childcare, mentoring, counseling, not to mention the relational and emotional aspects, consequences of poverty, or the community development needs of the poor neighborhoods.

Crucially, welfare doesn't take away children's need for mentoring, tutoring, and loving relationships from adults they can trust.

Second, and most important, the task of the church is not primarily to meet the felt need, but to proclaim the good news of Jesus and make disciples.

Can welfare for money, for food, rent, and health care make it harder for welfare recipients to hear the gospel? Perhaps. But I doubt they're more resistant than affluent Americans who have sufficient money for food, housing, health care, and a wealth of other luxuries.

For example, the people in my church's neighborhood were far more open to the gospel than my classmates in graduate school.

Perhaps you've heard stories of people gaming the welfare system, maybe by choosing not to work so they can live off government handouts, or by...

But the thing is, guys, this is the thing. It's not about gaming the system. You see, this is such propaganda, guys.

This is such propaganda. This burns me up because this guy probably knows better because he's an economist.

His life is to study this kind of stuff. It's not about gaming the system. You see, some people do game the system.

I mean, that's obvious. But more often than not, those that stay on welfare intentionally are making rational decisions.

Let me give you an example. There was a woman that me and my wife knew, and she was in this jacked up situation that so many people find themselves in because the government is so idiotic.

So she was in this situation where she would lose certain benefits that she was getting from the government, right?

I don't think these programs should exist, by the way, but let's just hear this situation. She would lose certain benefits, housing benefits, food benefits, whatever it was, if she took a job because she would make too much money to qualify for these programs.

But the problem is, if she didn't have the job, she would get the benefit. So it was actually a net positive for her not to work.

And so it's not that she's gaming the system. It's that rationally, from a rational mind,

I can afford to live if I don't work. If I do work, I can't afford to live. So she makes the rational choice of not working and getting the benefits.

And the thing is, that is so twisted and upside down. It's not about gaming the system.

It's about making a rational choice. And the thing is, you go to these welfare places and say, this is so weird.

I want to work, and I have this job, but you're telling me I'm going to lose all these benefits if I work? And they're like, yeah, because the government doesn't care.

The government has numbers and formulas, and it's just cold and heartless.

And that's why the government does a terrible job at this, because what a Christian system would do is she would get help from people who had, and she could work, and she could eat, and she could have her kids taken care of, and all this kind of stuff, all while the gospel is being preached as well, by the way.

So it's like, this is propaganda. It's not that people are gaming the system, and that's what we're worried about.

No, no. It's that people are making rational choices. People that didn't work during the pandemic, they made a rational choice, because I could make more money not working than working.

That's a rational decision. I don't blame them for that. It's the government's evil programs that are the reason that they were able to have that decision put in front of them.

When the government gets involved in these things, there's moral hazards everywhere. How much do you want to bet that the term moral hazard will not be in this article?

Anyway, let's continue. Stories like this should not surprise us.

We live in a world corrupted by laziness, greed, and sin. There is no system on earth that escapes some kind of manipulation and fraud, but the system isn't as riddled with deception as you might think.

One estimate is that 1 % of SNAP payments were made in error, but most of that is due to mistakes made by the household and the agency, not by deliberate fraud.

For Medicaid, 10 % of the annual costs are due to fraud and systemic overcharging, but that's not committed by welfare recipients.

It's the healthcare providers that are doing the fraud. Essentially, here's the reality.

He's writing a puff piece. I'm not going to read any more of this. Hey, buddy. Hold on one second. This is

Noah. Say hi, Noah. Good, you didn't say hi, Noah. What'd you want to do?

Why'd you come in here? I love you, buddy.

I want my balloon. Okay, well, I'm going to let you go now. I'm not going to read any more because the point of this article is to say, well, welfare is not so bad and the church can still be the church on the fringes and stuff like that.

By the way, we're not even supposed to be doing this primarily. We're supposed to be preaching the gospel, and so let's just let the government handle it.

By the way, they're totally competent. In fact, they're way more competent than the church because look at how complicated this chart is and all this stuff.

None of these programs should exist, by the way, and the church could clearly do this better, but this is the problem that we have because if you listen to the

Gospel Coalition, which God help you if you do, you're not going to actually get answers to the questions that you ask.

They're like the consummate politicians. They're just going to answer whatever the heck they want to answer. This person, whoever wrote this question,

I'm assuming was sincerely looking for a real answer. How can I be wise? What should Christians advocate?

Would it be better for the church to replace the welfare system? The answer to that is clearly yes, and the

Bible equips us. What does the Bible say? This is a theological issue. This is not a style issue.

Greg Phelan, if you ever hear this, the Bible says that it equips us.

The Word of God equips us for every good work. It equips us for every good work, and that includes this super complex poverty system that the government has decided to take over.

The church is equipped for this. The Bible tells us exactly what to do with the poor, and yet you're over here saying, well, good question, but it's actually not because it's not the right question.

The right question is this welfare system that the government has. Does it bother the church? It's just so ...

Guys, the bottom line is Gospel Coalition does not respect you. They don't respect you.

Their words are buttery, smooth. This guy Greg will smile in your face and say, good question, all while he's telling you in reality it's a stupid question, and by the way,

I'm going to answer the better question. Gospel Coalition doesn't respect you in any way, and I honestly can't think of an article that demonstrated that more clearly than this.

Now, some of you guys might know Greg. Oh, he's a great guy. He's a nice guy. Fine, but he does not respect his readers.

He does not respect you. He thinks he's up here, and you're down here, and your idiotic questions aren't the right questions.

It's not true. The Bible is sufficient. It equips us for every good work.

Yes, the church should absolutely be replacing the welfare system. Obviously, this is something that we couldn't necessarily do overnight, but we should be advocating for an abolishment of all of these programs immediately because they hurt the very people they claim to help.