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I hate the smell of New York City. It’s a rancid mix of marijuana smoke and the constant burning stench of corn dog stalls. Those endless little kiosks lining the streets, scamming tourists with $10 corn dogs while polluting the air with that greasy, burnt odour. There is nothing “American” about these stallsーinvariably manned by migrants, no prices are displayed on the menu (because no sane person would order a $10 corn dog), the food quality is best described as “slop” (a $10 slop!), all the while this middle-eastern call to prayer is blaring in the background through their cheap bluetooth speakers—the whole experience is almost enough to put one off the Big Apple for good.
And did I mention the smell?
It was in the midst of this urban decay, right in Grand Central Station, that my two boys and I encountered him.
“Spare some change to help a brother out?”
We turned to see him—an African American man, well-dressed, looking perfectly healthy and capable. There was no visible disability, no sign of hardship beyond the fact that he had made begging his full-time occupation. With a confident charm, he chatted up strangers, fishing for sympathy, leaning on guilt and social pressure to make his living. My sons, young and compassionate, instinctively reached for their pockets.
“No,” I told them firmly.
At first, I couldn’t quite articulate why. Was I being heartless? Wasn’t it Christian to give to those in need? But as we walked on, and I dwelt on it, the truth struck me with undeniable clarity.
A Society Built on Feelings, Not Facts, Is Doomed to Fail
We live in a society that has become too soft, too sentimental, too addicted to virtue-signalling instead of actually solving problems. The Leftist, socialist mentality has trained us to respond to suffering not with wisdom, but with blind compassion that often does more harm than good.
What happens when we subsidise laziness? When we make excuses for grown men who refuse to work? When we normalise begging and dependence? We create an entire underclass of people who no longer feel the need to take responsibility for their own lives.
This isn’t just about beggars. This applies to every broken institution that the Left continues to prop up:
- Welfare programs that reward joblessness.
- A bloated asylum system where illegal migrants exploit Western generosity.
- A culture that celebrates victimhood rather than hard work and calls for endless “reparations”.
- A criminal justice system that coddles criminals instead of punishing them; and perversely, punishes those who complain online about the crimes.
At the heart of all this dysfunction is one root cause: we have removed consequences from bad choices.
The Bible Has the Answer: Let Them Starve
God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us the simplest, most effective solution to laziness and dependence:
“For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”
2 Thessalonians 3:10, NKJV
This is not cruelty. This is reality. Hunger is one of the greatest natural motivators God built into human nature. If a man refuses to work, he should experience hunger, and that hunger will drive him to get up, work, and provide for himself.
But the modern welfare state, fuelled by leftist ideology, has broken this cycle. Instead of allowing natural consequences to push people toward self-reliance, we cushion them in government handouts, affirmative action, and never-ending “social justice” programs that trap them in permanent dependency. The results are all too visible: able-bodied men on welfare, illegal immigrants demanding free housing, or radicals screaming for endless “reparations.”
The Need for Discernment
Of course, some people are genuinely in need—the orphan, the widow, the disabled. The Bible repeatedly calls us to care for those who cannot provide for themselves. But that’s the key difference: they can’t.
Most people begging on the streets can.
The problem is that as a society, we no longer bother to discern the difference. We throw money at problems, thinking we are being kind, when in reality, we are enabling self-destruction.
Personal Experience: Hunger Builds Character
I speak from experience. In my fourth year of University, after three and a half years of studying as hard as I could and achieving top levels of academic achievements, I suddenly found myself struggling with motivation. The temptation to slack off, to procrastinate, to indulge in laziness was overwhelmingーone day, I woke up and found myself not wanting to get out of bed! Thankfully, I remembered the Bible verse in 2 Thessalonians 3, and decided to put into practice the plain reading of God’s Word: I stopped eating.
For two or three days, I went without food until the hunger became unbearable. And then, suddenly, my drive to work came roaring back. Hunger sharpened my focus. It reminded me that survival depends on action.
If such a simple principle could reawaken my motivation in a controlled setting, imagine what it could do for an entire society if we stopped bailing out laziness!
Teaching the Next Generation the Power of Consequences
We must break this cycle of dependency. We must teach our children that actions have consequences, that work is not optional, and that hardship is often the best teacher.
Imagine if, instead of handing out welfare like candy, we required work in exchange for benefits. Imagine if illegal immigrants and “asylum seekers” were given nothing upon arrival and forced to build their own future or be deported to their country of origin. Imagine if beggars realised that no one would give them a dime unless they contributed something in return.
The socialist, leftist ideology insists that such policies are cruel. But what’s truly cruel is trapping generations of people in a cycle of learned helplessness, robbing them of the dignity of self-reliance.
Jesus Himself never encouraged laziness. He fed the hungry—but He also commanded them to follow Him, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that He commanded them. That is a lot of work. Nowhere in Scripture do we see Jesus condoning able-bodied men living off of handouts. The modern welfare state is not Christian charity—it is government-enforced theft, taking from those who work and giving to those who refuse to.
It’s Time to Wake Up
We must stop rewarding failure. We must stop allowing emotions to override common sense.
The leftist dream of a utopia where everyone is “taken care of” sounds nice in theory, but history proves that it always collapses into ruin. The Soviet Union. Venezuela. Cuba. North Korea. All of them ran on the same false premise: that people will work hard out of the goodness of their hearts, even if they are guaranteed food and shelter without effort.
Reality doesn’t work that way. Human nature doesn’t work that way. God designed consequences for a reason.
And if we don’t wake up? If we continue down this road of endless welfare, unchecked immigration, and subsidised victimhood? We’ll have nothing left but more New Yorks—cities filled with the stench of marijuana and burnt corn dogs, run by corrupt Democratic leaders who pander to the weak and punish the strong.
So the next time you see a beggar with no visible disability, charming strangers into handing over their hard-earned money, remember: The best thing you can do for him is to let him feel hunger. Only then will he be forced to make a choice—to work, to build, to take responsibility.
And only then will we break free from the leftist delusion that has weakened our once-great civilisation.
