The best way to help the poor

What’s the best way to help poor people: creating government programs, or building character?

The place was Georgetown University &#8212 on the right end of the stage was conservative author Arthur Brooks, who want us to stop blaming the rich.

“[If] we can get away from this notion that the rich are stealing from the poor, then we can look at this, I think, in a way that is constructive,” Brooks said.

And seated to the left was one Barack Obama, arguing that it’s wrong for wealthy hedge fund managers, for example, to be paying a lower tax rate than middle class taxpayers.

But there was also agreement. The President acknowledged that discussion about economics can’t replace strong families.

“When I’m sitting there talking to these kids and I’ve got a boy who said ‘How did you get over being mad at your dad? Because I got a father who beat my mom and now has left.’ I’m not going to have a conversation with him about macro-economics,” Obama said.

But he also said that you’re much more likely to create a strong family if the parents can get jobs, and have time to read to their kids, and if there are well-funded schools.

And for the conservative side, Arthur Brooks acknowledged that Capitalism doesn’t work unless the capitalists running are upright citizens.

I won’t venture to say who won the day &#8212 but the President did conclude by observing that he is not the only public figure insisting the governments have a duty to relieve poverty.

“Nobody has shown that better than Pope Francis,” he said. “Through the sincerity and insistence that this is vital to following what Jesus Christ our savior talked about.”