Fight poverty with employment, not free money
The solution to eliminate poverty is to provide jobs, not handing out free money. Employment with stable income makes us earn a living. There's dignity in working hard to provide decent lifestyle to our family. Handouts, when received as temporary welfare, helps to cushion the unforeseen misfortune in life. However, when receiving handouts has become a routine, it will be addictive and incentivising unproductive entitlement mentality. Poverty is a perennial problem in all societies. Providing aid is a short term solution. It cannot be sustained for long. A long term sustainable solution is to create jobs. Decent employment does not only alleviate people from poverty but also contributes to the overall productivity of a society, in broad economic measure of gross domestic product per capita. Therefore, it's heartening to read news that a multinational company, National Instruments (NI), is expanding their operation in Penang with RM170 million. The com