Give a Man a Fish, He eats for a Day. Teach a man to Fish, he eats for a Lifetime.

[dusketernal]

This sort of statement is the kind made by those who fail to understand systemic and generational poverty can't be solved by such trite maxims and automatically presumes those who receive "handouts" (as these purveyors of ignorance would call them) are also the type who are somehow lazy and thus not willing to fish (or willing to learn to do so). There's a reason why the phrase "working poor" exists and has truth to it, quite contrary to those who think those individuals should somehow suck it up and magically raise themselves through their own effort out of poverty.

[PosPosPos]

This sort of statement is the kind made by those who fail to understand systemic and generational poverty can't be solved by such trite maxims and automatically presumes those who receive "handouts" (as these purveyors of ignorance would call them) are also the type who are somehow lazy and thus not willing to fish (or willing to learn to do so). There's a reason why the phrase "working poor" exists and has truth to it, quite contrary to those who think those individuals should somehow suck it up and magically raise themselves through their own effort out of poverty.

And it's ironic because these are the same people who take the most share out of the handouts given.

[Golden Yak]

Build a man a fire, he's warm for a day.

Set a man on fire, he's warm for the rest of his life.

[kail]

These days many people prefer the "disregard learning for yourself and let another Man catch lots of Fish and then demand he shares them with you" approach unfortunately.

If the fish is limited, yes others will demand that one person should not hoard the extreme majority of the fish.

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Give a man a fish, and he'll eat the fucking fish.

Teach a man to fish, and he'll end up working for minimum wage, where he'll catch 100 fish and get to keep 1, and 90 of those fish go to the CEO.

Your math may be wrong, but it was a funny analogy regardless.

[Glorious Leader]

Self-reliance has limited value in a system that's inescapably interdependent.

Thats a bingo. The inherent assumption behind this little diddy is that individuals can escape socitey wide illls if they only learn enough! This of course cant be true for everybody but people who believe in this.sort of crap tend to be social darwinists in the most extreme and awful sense.

Its just to bad they never ask what happens if you use a man as bait...

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This sort of statement is the kind made by those who fail to understand systemic and generational poverty can't be solved by such trite maxims and automatically presumes those who receive "handouts" (as these purveyors of ignorance would call them) are also the type who are somehow lazy and thus not willing to fish (or willing to learn to do so). There's a reason why the phrase "working poor" exists and has truth to it, quite contrary to those who think those individuals should somehow suck it up and magically raise themselves through their own effort out of poverty.

Well said. But see this sort of thing is slightly more nuanced and complex but teaching a man to fish is brain dead stupid so it gets by easier.

[Kellhound]

Teach a man to fish, and thats all he will want to do from then on.

[Halicia]

Your math may be wrong, but it was a funny analogy regardless.

1 fish to the man. 90 to the ceo. and 9 to pay off the loan officers for Fish University.

but seriously... one of my pet peeves is efficiency...

to simply the statement and take it somewhat literally...

why bother teaching a man to fish, if he only wants to eat fish once a year ? instead, you can train a fisherman that can excel at his profession, and bring in enough fish to satisfy a village, and THOSE villagers, can concentrate on their specialties of farming, and whatnot.

and even if everyone had the same aptitude for fishing, there's an inherent inefficiency in the time involved in training... you're taking at least two people from the workforce in the meantime, the teacher and the student(s).

[Raysz]

Ron Swanson says it well.

The fish statement is mostly used in a wider context. It's about the general concept of teaching and helping people to get by in lesser developed countries, to get out of the miserable situation they're in. You linking that video makes you look a bit clueless, that's fine, but now you know.

[schwarzkopf]

But if you don't feed him something whilst he is learning how to fish... then he will be dead anyway.

[Dr Assbandit]

[Vash The Stampede]

Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a robot to fish and the man doesn't need to fish anymore.

[PACOX]

Make the man take out a high interest loan to teach him to fish. Make him pay rent to catch the fish. Buy fish from hit at below market value.

Capitalism!

[Captain N]

Make the man take out a high interest loan to teach him to fish. Make him pay rent to catch the fish. Buy fish from hit at below market value.

Capitalism!

You forgot -- Catches fish in lake that has repealed dumping regulations from the Cannery Plant upstream. Man eats toxic fish and requires hospital stay. Man is labeled lazy and a thief for not being able to pay his medical bills.

[Stelio Kontos]

I think America needs to pay reparations.

So does most of Western Europe, then.

And Turkey.

[Alvito]

If they live in a place with no fish this new skill is worthless and they are still hungry. Luckily you don't have to make the choice of one or the other, there is a lot of middle ground ignoring that is rather foolish.

[Dezerte]

And if a man doesn't have a fishing pole, a place to fish and a license the saying suddenly gets a bit complicated.

[ComputerNerd]

In education certainly there is room to teach skills more than a syllabus.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Do you agree with the above statement?

Is it better to teach societies self-reliance rather than teaching them to be dependent on handouts?

Personally I believe societies as a whole are better off if they are taught self-reliance and are held accountable for their actions, regardless of the outcome. Also a feeling of independence and dignity come with providing for yourself rather than having someone else or some entity providing for you.

It's a statement with a measure of truth but a poor absolute.

Honestly, you're better off giving the man a fish while you teach him to fish. So you know, he doesn't starve while you were too busy preaching to him about the merits of hard work and the likes.

The biggest problem with the saying, more than anything, is that it's a little archaic when you consider the fact that we live in a time of over abundance and waste. Where people catch fish and then throw it immediately into a nearby dumpster just because they could; yet want to mock, ridicule, and judge others.

[helebelemon]

At the lowest socioeconomic levels, yes. Above? Abstraction is a necessity.

[globenstine]

or i could just let the man starve to death.