Self-Reliance: Better Than Government Dependence

Patrick Tyrrell / July 26, 2010

A just released report by the Sutherland Institute introduces a metric—the Self-Reliance Index—that can be used to track people’s reliance on government and lack of self-sufficiency. You might call it the opposite of The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Dependence on Government.

The report notes, “Government aid only creates an illusion that aid recipients are well-enough off. Just as a student who hires someone to help them get ‘A’s’ is not truly an ‘A’ student, a person who depends on government to fulfill his or her needs is not out of poverty.” The Sutherland Institute recommends tracking how people obtain what they have. That is surely a more important statistic than tracking what they have borrowed, earned, or been given as if the method of obtaining what they own is irrelevant. (more…)