Sage:

Not to dispute your assessment, but my own sainted Mother, until her death, was absolutely opposed to any form of assistance on the grounds that she and my Dad had amassed that estate "for a rainy day," not to give it to the kids ("hell, the kids will just squander it anyway, if they aren't turned into lazy, shiftless so-and-sos by receiving all that wealth without having worked for it").

Of course, that was the Depression-Era concept of personal wealth talking. People should spend what they earn, not what they are given.