Social Policies: the more things change, the more they stay the same

Democrats thinks that their ideas are "new ideas" responding the "complexity" of "modern" society. They think that because they do not read history. Consider LBJ's "war on poverty." Benjamin Franklin knew how LBJ's "war" would turn out two centuries in advance:

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." —Benjamin Franklin

Hat tip: Leonard.

PREVIOUSLY on America's Founding Fathers and their relevance to today:
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•From Rousseau to Al Gore: the rise of the declinists
•Hamilton vs. Jefferson on the French Revolution
•Disaster and conspiracy theorists: from Alexander Hamilton to today
•Fatherless children and their support for centralized government: from Hamilton to Obama
•Hamilton vs. Jefferson on monarchs
•Fear and delusion among liberals: from Alexander Hamilton to Rosie O'Donnell