How should society relieve poverty? Two paths seem obvious. Neither leads to the goal.

The first path:

We give the poor what they need. The rich pay, or endowments and monasteries help. Then the poor have a secure living. But they have it without their own work. That goes against the principle of society. And it hurts people’s feeling of being independent and having honor.

The second path:

We give the poor work. Then they make more goods. But that is exactly the evil: There are already too many goods and too few buyers. So the evil grows.

What does this show?

For all its abundance, society is not rich enough. With its own means, it cannot check poverty and the rabble.

The example of England:

There you can see this on a large scale. The poor tax, huge endowments and boundless private charity have not cured the evil. In Scotland, one means has proved the most direct: to leave the poor to their fate. Society points them to public begging. This works against poverty, against the loss of shame and honor, and against laziness.

Summary: Neither support without work nor extra work solves the problem. For all its wealth, society is not rich enough to check poverty. In Scotland, the most direct means was to leave the poor to begging.