No handouts for the poor

I was appalled by the article on affordable living (The Acorn, Nov. 21). First, money is to be extorted from the taxpayers and developers in order to provide housing for the poor because they "need" it.

The government's proper function is to protect rights, not to fulfill everyone's needs. To do that would require a socialist dictatorship which would soon bankrupt the country.

Second, after getting handouts from others, the poor are to be placed in expensive developments so they will not feel "stigmatized." In other words, we are supposed to help the poor fake reality by helping them pretend they are not poor. If so, then shouldn't we also be forcibly taxed to provide them with new cars, new clothes and extra spending money?

Third, all this is to be done in the name of the "public good." This term has no objective meaning. In practice it means if you are not poor, you are not part of the public and we'll take your money and give it those who did not earn it who magically become "the public."

Only the immoral code of altruism could advocate turning productive citizens into sacrificial victims. The Agoura Hills City Council should be condemned for its philosophy and the policies which flow from it. Edwin A. Locke Westlake Village