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Yes, I am talking about a very bleak and prison-like (but livable) environment that would hopefully encourage people to work to improve their lives
Work where? You've seen these people. So have I. Would you hire them? I thought not. Nor is it their fault that they are unemployable. You'd have to go back two generations if you wanted to get a better outcome. And what about black men, 50% of whom are touched in some way by the taint of the Justice System and its life long chilling effect on future employment forever thereafter. I think at last count there were some 3 million (total) jobs in all labor categories open in this country. 75% will be filled through networks or promotion or other non-competitive avenues. The rest are open to the best qualified, best fit candidate. You do the math: 750,000 open positions, 50 million (at least) Americans need one. Again, you've seen the long term unemployed, the indigent, the dysfunctional... do I need to go on in this vein?
One of the advantages of being a black person in one of the whitest of cities is that even the down and out tend to leave me completely alone. If someone actually asks me for money, I usually give them a little. I figure they must really need it badly to approach me. Once in awhile I see someone who wants to take a panhandler to McDonalds and watch them eat what they buy for them. Makes me furious. Why the need to strip all the essential dignity from a person because they have come to you in need. Don't give it to them if you need to micro-manage how they use the gift. Or give it to them and don't look back. Going forward there is going to have to be some kind of 'Basic Income' for the maintenance of people who have been made redundant by dint of innovations in automation, or corporate greed, or pandemic illness.
Alternatively, we could give every single person ZERO and tell them to go find a job. They really do that in some countries and the people seem to do OK relying on their extended families. Of course, that'll never happen here.
I qualify for lots of low income programs. I have a full time job. It is not enough to cover all our expenses. We would starve if we had to expect the shortfall to be made up by my extended family.
In many cases, fixing the child support system will automatically resolve many of the issues with the welfare system.
I don't agree with you on some issues, however, this one I do agree with. Yes, overall there are by far more whites on public assistance than blacks but black only make up a little over 30% of the population. I remember when I was a kid there was a huge social stigma on a person for being on welfare, people didn't like having to get government handouts and if they did it was only for a short time. This type of mentality has completely changed in today's world, and I think it is due to the total amount of people relying on public assistance and the ease at which it can be obtained.
Let's not lump Social Security or Medicare into these programs, because they are not hand outs, you paid for them all your working life, they are not entitlements.
See, you're not listening. Welfare has been reformed. People are not on it for life anymore. And it isn't all that easy to get. And you can't live like a Queen... ...Walmart or no Walmart. And blacks are ~12% of the population. What are you trying to say? Give it up. Blacks aren't the problem. Never were. You're still unwilling to let go of your convictions aren't you. You're nursed them for so long not even the truth will unharden your heart. Reagan did a good job on the formerly good hearted people of the American North and West. We've not really been the same since.
This sounds like $20,000 of instant inflation to me.
When you increase the money supply by $20,000 per person, the markets (read: people who take money in exchange for goods and services) will increase their prices by a commensurate amount.
When we dumped $1 trillion into the marketplace with 'stimulus' in 2009 - 2010, what did we get for it? Nothing, other than another trillion dollars worth of national debt.
When we dumped another $1 trillion into the healthcare marketplace with the ACA, what did we get for it? Nothing, other than another trillion dollars worth of national debt. (There were 30 million uninsured then, and there are 30 million uninsured now.)
Markets have a way of mopping up extraneous, unassigned cash. Why transfer the cost of another 'feels good' wealth redistribution scheme to the national debt?
There are always going to be a sub-strata of people incapable of taking care of themselves. How many of you have actually worked with the homeless. I have, and most of them (not all, but a majority) are not CAPABLE of being middle class or working class people for a variety of reasons, mostly mental illness and addiction, a type of mental illness.
There are about 650K homeless people in America, so there's a group right there that will be a problem no matter what welfare we have or don't have.
There are other various dependent people that simply do not have the wherewithal - due their physical or mental handicaps - to take care of themselves, but they have support from their families who often get generous "welfare" for taking care of these people (ie: one of my cousins got what was essentially a working-class salary from the VA to take care of my uncle who was a veteran and blind).
Then there are going to be some able-bodied people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves vulnerable through job loss, temporary illness, etc... some people are just unlucky. You get injured and can't work, a family member dies, things snowball and you're in trouble, etc...
I would be okay with eliminating the social safety net if and ONLY if there were massive job re-training or education programs put in their place. Also, if there was adequate public transportation in all parts of the country. A big problem I notice is that very poor people cannot reliably get to the jobs that are out there, so people with a few more resources (a reliable car) get the available jobs.
People who say "just get a job" forget that it costs money to make money. "Just get a job" does you no good if you don't have the resources to look for jobs and apply and if your skill-set is not in line with the market's needs.
Donno.
1. nothing is for free, only cheese in the mouse trap. Those are 20K taken away from possibly better ways to spend them. Like maybe better healthcare or education. Also, they came from somewhere and someone.
2. back in 'ol country we had different issue. It was illegal NOT to work and EVERY citizen was guaranteed employment. Doubt this is anywhere possible to accomplish though now.
See, you're not listening. Welfare has been reformed. People are not on it for life anymore. And it isn't all that easy to get. And you can't live like a Queen... ...Walmart or no Walmart. And blacks are ~12% of the population. What are you trying to say? Give it up. Blacks aren't the problem. Never were. You're still unwilling to let go of your convictions aren't you. You're nursed them for so long not even the truth will unharden your heart. Reagan did a good job on the formerly good hearted people of the American North and West. We've not really been the same since.
Reagan screwed up a lot things for middle and low income folks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WiseManOnceSaid
Imagine all the armed robberies that are gonna happen on check passing out day!
Direct deposit. Even with a regular job that pays every two weeks, everyone gets paid at the same time. And I would think that if everyone has money, the need to steal (anything) would dramatically decrease.
Requires a certain level of insanity to operate.
To illustrate, there is no correlation between the total sum and value of the money tokens -and- the marketplace of goods and services.
There could be a mountain of money and nothing in the marketplace, since no one "needed" money and bothered to work, etc, etc. Which makes all that money worthless, useless and meaningless.
But as long as people believe that money has value independent of the marketplace, the madness will continue.
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