Actually your way is much better. I definitely agree the laid off Mom should receive the money. (More on this later.)
Again, I agree. However, here's the problem. If we get rid of government programs how do you know who requires help? Sure, you may have a family member who needs help with the rent one month and you may know your neighbor can't afford to pay his heating bill so you slip him a few dollars but do you know about the family the next street over who has no food? And how many people would actually give their neighbor a few dollars towards paying a hydro bill? Would you drive to the poor side of town, stand on the street corner and ask passers-by if they know anyone who needs money?
Just look at the nonsense posted here about welfare recipients. If anyone, ANYONE, thinks welfare is some gold mine I suggest they quit their job and apply. It's available for anyone and everyone. Why are people worried about their job when welfare is available; that government gold mine available to all? Maybe only $13.76 of your $100.00 gets to the right person but that's $13.76 more than they'd get if you didn't contribute.
Two years ago the town where I live spend $60,000 on a topiary display. It looked like a giant chia pet in the shape of a unicorn. How many poor families could have been fed with that money? Why did people, the following year, once again vote for the same Mayor who authorized that?
That's what happens, Dix, when things are left up to "individual giving". We see it every day. New sidewalks. New street lamps. And people standing under them with a sign or a hat in hand begging for money. As my Bulgarian ex-girl friend used to say, "Poverty is a sin", meaning we sin against the poorest in society. (By the way she was one good looking gal! Dark hair, green eyes, tall, slim and when I asked her how she was able to travel outside the communist country, years ago, she told me she entered chess matches and the government allowed her to travel to participate.)
If individual giving worked there wouldn't have been any need for government programs but people aren't like that. At least most people aren't. They either don't know or don't care about the poor. And even when government gets involved people vote for a chia pet display. Go figure.