Yes, that's why things were just so wonderful in the early Depression, when people had no welfare state. The poor could just starve, and were frequently rounded up and dumped over the county line so that other juristictions would have the problem. I'm sure that anyone who lived through the Depression is wildly nostalgic about the good old days when they weren't helped out by the nanny state.

 

/SARCASM


Just thought I'd clarify in case it went over anyone's heads

 

I'm not a fan of America's idea of "reasonable caveats." Not that I think welfare recipients are blameless, but rather, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

If the argument is:

Government contractors + government $$ = pee in a cup
Therefore,
pee in a cup = government $$ + welfare recipients.

My paranoia is in treating welfare recipients like government contractors. Some (many here) would argue that's the right thing to do. I say it opens Pandora's backdoor.

 

That's not the argument. The argument is we're providing a benefit to ensure their well being, and we should be making sure that those benefits are being put to good use.

A heroin user will never get out of the rut. If they fail a piss test, it's rehab or lose your benefit... simple as that.

 

It is because of the people like you that the majority of people in this country have no money management skills, or even care to. That is because they know that no matter how bad they screw up, there will always be some assistance program to bail them out because, hey, its not their fault they spend money on luxuries instead of necessities, its how the media and culture says I should spend my money. Its the same principle as giving the losing team a trophy too "just for trying and being special and cute and awesome" or parents telling their kids that they are special and smart even though they are in the bottom half of their class. People need to stop trying to make everyone equal and return to the system that says, "hey, if you want to get ahead in life, work hard, make smart choices, and don't be a ****up". And if you do screw up, don't just look for a government bailout. I work damn hard for my money and getting nickle and dimed to death so some bitch that had too many kids at age 16 and has no job can live in comfort is not something I look kindly on. I know it sounds cold, but if we stopped helping all of these people and let them suffer the consequences of their decisions, the next generation would be more prone to making better ones. Same goes for all the idiots that racked up $20,000 in credit card debt and defaulted on their mortgage because they are too ignorant to realize that ADJUSTABLE RATE means that your rate can and will change and did not plan for it. Let them default and lose their homes and declare bankruptcy. It will make me look better for not doing so. It's called Darwinism, and you suck. End rant.

 

I'm failing to see how GT_2003's post is causation for America's general lack of money management. You may even want to read it again, since it's saying something similar to your rant.

Or not, as I'm sure you're too busy making smart choices to care.

 

I think that people here ought to do a bit of a reality check. I was watching the news last night re: the Michigan primaries, and there was a story about how people who are seriously disabled and unable to find any work at all were denied Social Security benefits that they had paid for because there are unofficial quotas at Social Security that result in people who legitimately qualify being turned down. There was also a long item about the rising unemployment in Michigan, and how the decline of the auto industry has resulted in the highest jobless rate since the Great Depression. These aren't loafers who are overspending, but people who were working and wish that they could work who legitimately are without jobs. I don't understand why everyone in this group seems to assume that the jobless are living in luxury or unwilling to work.

I also want to reiterate that a google search showed that the maximum welfare rate in Florida is $303 a month for a family of 3, and that half a dozen states are paying less. Some wag pointed out that this is a fortune in the third world, but in the third world, food, shelter, etc. are proportionately lower. $303 a month in the US is deep poverty.

Another thing that I have to observe is that people who are posting on a S2K website clearly are people who are not feeling any financial pain. I would suggest that a subject for reflection for many here is why they seem to take so much pleasure in the subject of denying help to your fellow man when he or she is in need. We appear to be heading into a recession, and many more hard-working people are going to be losing their life savings, their jobs, and their homes. I refer you to an article in today's NY Times about how the decline of the economy in southern Ohio is reducing the lower middle class to poverty. It isn't sufficient to refer to social Darwinism and "I'm all right Jack." We do have moral responsibilities to our fellow human beings.

 

Since when is money management a learned skill? Everyone over the age of five inherently knows that if you have a limited amount of money, and you spend too much on bullshit, you may not have enough for the necessities. This is not even common sense.. it's way to common to be categorized as such. I think what you're referring to, GT_2003, is a lack of giving a shit skill.

 

My head is exploding right now from making so many smart choices.

Ha, sorry, rough day at work. I'm just sick of hearing everyone whine about how it's not their fault that they are poor or in debt or whatever have you. No one is accountable for their own actions anymore. BTW, killer pic of Scarlett!

 

Sometimes they aren't responsible. If you work on a factory production line for 30 years and the plant closes down, and unemployment is high in your area, it is very difficult to find work. If, as in one case shown on TV last night, you work for an employer for 40 years, come down with a rare form of abdominal cancer and can't work, and when you lose your job because of the illness, you also lose your insurance that would pay for your treatment, and you lose all of your savings and house trying to pay for the treatment that will keep you alive, that's not your fault. We don't have control over all aspects of our health, over the entire economy or a myriad of factors. To think that everyone is the sole master of his or her fate is just not viable.