What Would Mitt Romney’s “Fix” of the Safety Net for the Poor Look Like?

The best model for fixing the safety net for the poor is the model already worked out by the Mormon Church. Mormons have a system of welfare that lets almost no one fall through the cracks while at the same time ensuring that its beneficiaries do not become lifelong dependents.

The Mormon system includes a 15-acre warehouse on the outskirts of Salt Lake City that contains a 2 year supply of food to support the church’s welfare system in the U.S. and Canada (primarily for church members in need) and its humanitarian program, which sends food, medical supplies and other necessities to the needy of all faiths world-wide.

In addition to goods from canned peaches to emergency generators, the facility also houses the church's own trucking company, complete with 43 tractors and 98 trailers, as well as a one-year supply of fuel, parts and tires for the vehicles. Just in case.

Most of the inventory in the central storehouse, though, goes to supply more than 100smaller storehouses around the country, plus hundreds of soup kitchens and homeless shelters of other religious communities around North America.

This whole system is manned and supplied with money from volunteers and church donors. It is designed to rehabilitate to working status rather than to keep its aid recipients on the dole with perpetual unemployment insurance.

If you would like to learn more about this wonder of efficient welfare supply, go to http://on.wsj.com/zQliuP