Giving that fosters dependence can harm recipients by encouraging idleness and helplessness, as able individuals are responsible for their own livelihood.
Draft interpretation · MH 195.1
Original passage
We may give to the poor, and harm them, by teaching them to be dependent. Such giving encourages selfishness and helplessness. Often it leads to idleness, extravagance, and intemperance. No man who can earn his own livelihood has a right to depend on others. The proverb “The world owes me a living” has in it the essence of falsehood, fraud, and robbery. The world owes no man a living who is able to work and gain a living for himself.
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