President François Hollande of France proposed a “millionaire tax” last year and is arranged to become a law this 2014. This law would allow the government to impose a 75% tax on rich companies with high annual salaries. This is a way of forcing the rich to help the nation's sinking economy. The proposed tax caused sharp reactions from the rich and famous in France. President Lyndon Johnson of America in 1964 declared a “war on poverty.”

He wanted to help the needy increase in self-sufficiency. His goal was to enable the poor to lift themselves up beyond the need for public assistance. President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill in 1996. Many got jobs when they knew the checks would cease. Today poverty rate in America is roughly the same level as in 1964. Analysis revealed that lack of government programs did not cause poverty, nor spending vast sums of money has eliminated it either.

It is a fact in human nature that people tend to become dependent on government benefits and lost any sense of personal responsibility. It is a poverty of spirit. There is no undiscovered truth about the cure for most poverty. Stay in school; get married before having children and stay married; work hard, save and invest. The "war on poverty" can be won, but it must be fought with different weapons, not the ones that have failed for the last half-century.

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Tidbits:

G.R. No. 182623, December 4, 2009DIONISIO M. MUSNIT, vs. SEA STAR SHIPPING CORPORATION and SEA STAR SHIPPING CORPORATION, LTD. Courtesy of Atty. Fidel Borja

All told, the rule is that under Section 20-B(3) of the 1996 POEA-SEC, it is mandatory for a claimant to be examined by a company-designated physician within three days from his repatriation. The unexplained omission of this requirement will bar the filing of a claim for disability benefits. Without any valid excuse, petitioner did not submit himself to a company-designated physician for medical examination within three days from his arrival in the Philippines. He submitted himself for medical examination to the company-designated physician x x x seven months after his repatriation following the completion of his previous contract x x x.