We will find it harder to keep busy if other people, with the best of intentions, begin to do things for us. Helping really helps only those who need to be helped. Others are deprived of the chance to be active. (A truly compassionate God would not, contrary to the old saying, help those who help themselves. He or She would not thus deprive them of the enjoyment of achievement.) The well-meaning friend who holds our coat robs us of the chance to exercise a few seldom-used muscles. The friend who stops to give us a ride cheats us out of what remains of a healthful walk. Those who do our shopping for us convert us into stay-at-homes. Refusing help is hard because accepting it is easy and hurts no feelings, but friends who really want to help will be glad to know that we prefer to do some things ourselves. (It is hard not to help. We watch a small boy trying to tie his shoelaces and grow jittery as he struggles. Then we tie them for him and deprive him of a chance to learn to tie shoelaces. Old people inspire the same kind of unasked-for help and suffer as much from it. Nursing homes liter-ally hasten the death of old people by giving un-needed help. It is not always given out of compas-sion. Doing things for old people is simply easier, quicker, and cheaper than letting them do things for themselves.)

A person who has been incarcerated and then given the things he needs to survive is being denied a very basic right. He is being destroyed as a person by having his reinforcing contingencies stripped away. The same thing happens to those on welfare. A humane society will, of course, help those who need help and cannot help themselves, but it is a great mistake to help those who can help themselves. Psychotic or retarded people who in essence earn their own living would be happier and more dignified than those who receive their living free and are then treated punitively because in the absence of reinforcing consequences they behave badly. Those who claim to be defending human rights are overlooking the greatest right of all: the right to reinforcement.
投獄され、そのうえで生きるに必要なものを与えられている人は、実はもっとも基本的な権利を否定されているのです。このような人は、強化随伴性を剥取られることによって、人間として抹殺されているのです。同様のことが福祉の対象となっている人にも起こっています。思いやりのある社会は、もちろん、 援助が必要で自分ではそれができない人々を援助するでしょうが、自分でできる人々までも援助するのは大きな誤りです。精神病あるいは精神遅滞であっても基本的には自分自身で生計を立てることのできる者は、無償で生活が保証されてはいるものの行動の結果が強化されることがないためによい行動が乏しく、それゆえに罰的に扱われがちな者よりも、はるかに幸せで貴いのです。人権を守るのだと主張している人たちはすべての権利のなかで最大の権利を見逃しています−−−−−それは強化への権利です。

．．．Happiness does not lie in the possession of positive reinforcers; it lies in behaving because positive reinforcers have then followed.
．．．幸福とは、正の強化子を手にしていることではなく、正の強化子が結果としてもたらされたがゆえに行動することなのです。