I think that a lot of the people where I live are wonderful. Many of them are very nice and welcoming. One of the biggest problems facing them, though, is the problem of entitlements.
I live in a small village in Alaska that is much like a reservation in the lower 48. The village is comprised mostly of natives, at about 95% of the population. When the Federal Government came into Alaska and started taking land, they dealt with the natives differently than in the lower 48. They bought the land for the estimated value it had to the natives and allowed the natives to keep a certain amount of it.
The money from the sale went to set up several regional corporations. The one serving the village where I live is called the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, or ASRC. Every native born on the slope is given a share in the corporation. It is my understanding that the shares can be bought or sold from there, just like any other corporation. This corporation wasn't hit hardly at all in the recent economic downturn. Consequently, the natives still get dividend payments of $5,000-$7,000/person twice a year.
If that were the only entitlement here, things would be different, I'm sure. The Federal Government and local government provides nearly everything else for them, also. Health care is basically free for natives. If they need to fly to Anchorage for treatment, they will help cover the costs. Nearly all of them are eligible for WIC and Welfare due to various conditions up here. Also, in school every student gets all of their supplies given to them, including a laptop. There are no fees to students for use of facilities, including the pool. And the list goes on.
Are all of these things in and of themselves a bad thing? No, in fact I think that helping people who need it is our responsibility as Christians. However, having everything handed to them has made the natives that I have met feel like they deserve everything handed to them. It has destroyed the initiative of many of them. It has made many of them irresponsible. Many of them, in fact, when they try to move out and do things on their own find it extremely difficult because they aren't used to having to be to work on time or pay the rent on time (people not paying rent for months at a time has become such a problem up here that there are elaborate incentive programs to get them to do it--and they don't get evicted because it's owned by the local government). They will often move back a few months after leaving because of the difficulty they faced.
This is the problem! Entitlements destroy initiative and personal responsibility. Some people would say that providing for the "Common Welfare" means that every person should have every need, and most of their wants, taken care of by the government. It is dehumanizing to rob people of their ability to provide for themselves.
