08/15/2026
I started working in fifth grade — as a golf caddy. That job taught me more about life than almost anything since: work ethic, persistence, resilience, and how to handle money. I learned to budget before I learned algebra. Decades later, after building a career entirely on straight commission — no base salary, no safety net, no guaranteed paycheck — I paid off my home in seven years and built a debt-free life. Not because I was lucky. Because I was taught, early and repeatedly, how money works and what it takes to earn it.
I am against handouts. Not because I don't care about people struggling — I do, deeply — but because I've watched what unconditional giving actually produces versus what it promises. We've run the "give people money" experiment for sixty years through the modern welfare system, and it has not lifted people out of poverty at anywhere near the scale it was supposed to.
Here's what I believe is actually going on. People end up struggling financially for a handful of reasons: they were never taught financial literacy, they never learned to budget, some are dealing with genuine corruption or exploitation, and some are simply not motivated to change. Different problems need different solutions — and a one-size-fits-all check doesn't fix any of them.
So here's my proposal: teach financial literacy and personal financial responsibility early — in schools, in communities, before bad habits set in. And when people still need help, don't just hand them money. Give them a short-term, interest-free loan from the government. Make them have skin in the game. Make them accountable. Help them find what they're actually passionate about, and support them in building a skill or a living around it.
I'd bet real money that approach produces far less dependency, far more dignity, and far more people who feel proud of what they've built — because they built it, not because it was given to them.
Curious what others think. Agree? Disagree? Tell me why.
— Greg Schenk