Quote:
Originally Posted by Esacni
Let's say NYC isn't #1 COL but is #3. How does that change my argument? There are a number of ways to measure COL and since NYCs main COL driver is housing and taxes (for those that actually work and don't qualify for welfare ), some may measure other cities as a higher COL (although it isn't reality).
Furthermore, you chose to ignore my key distinction that welfare in a d of itself isn't the problem. It's welfare becoming institutionalized a d a part of may people's lives for decades.
NYCHA isn't welfare? Just be auwe it isn't free doesn't mean it's not welfare. Subsidies are also welfare. Another case of NYCs welfare mentality. "If it's not completely free, then it ain't welfare".
You still didn't present an argument for why people who aren't disabled or elderly are entitled to various kinds of welfare programs for decades on end?
As for my family and I, we didn't come to NYC to live on welfare. My father got a job at minimum wage ($4/hour) a week after we arrived (roofing). My parents have a paid off house in BK and put 2 kids through college (without loans). My brother and I now have decent jobs and pay far more into the system than we take out. That's how it's supposed to work.
What's the excuse for people who were born here and only bleed the system dry?
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There is no let's say NYC isn't #1. It isn't. COL is the average price you pay relative to the average wage you earn. There aren't alternatives to measuring COL. But let's move forward.
Before we continue, I'd like to read YOUR definition of welfare. From what I gather, your definition and the ACTUAL definition greatly differs. How do I know? You mention NYCHA which is not welfare. If someone chooses to live in low-income housing, that is either their based on their ability to pay or it's their choice. You live in a supposed tony area and yet your concern is not for your own neighborhood but for a neighborhood you have no ties to. Why?
So why aren't disabled or elderly are entitled to various kinds of welfare programs for decades on end? Because they have jobs that don't pay them enough to move past the programs. How does someone move from subsidized rent of $400/month to market rent of $2400/month? The larger question is why would someone make such a move.
Regarding your American "arrival", I'm trying to picture how a $4/hr salary can grow into an eventual home purchase plus college for two kids without loans can happen without government assistance at any time over the past 50 years. Yes, I agree that your experience is ideally how things ought to go. But because you were neither born here nor never had to deal with a legacy of systemic racism, your pathway to upward mobility was easier to accomplish.
When your family came here, did you ever have to deal with issues like arsenic water, asbestos, inferior public education, dumping of drugs and booze in your neighborhood, etc.? What I'm saying is that no rational person chooses poverty. The recent migrant crisis is proof of that - people want more from their lives. Any perception of a welfare mentality is confused with people who are frustrated at best and morally defeated at worse.
When a system impedes a person's desire to progress, how does that person survive...and then thrive? Your family dealt with a similar lack in your own country, right? That's why YOU left.
I'll end with a story that may be familiar to you: I have a buddy who is Lebanese. Super smart guy. Successful. Lives in a tony BK neighborhood. Goes on and on about how smart his people are. But while he enjoys the fruits of America (fruits that he has earned no doubt), his country continues to spiral into total socio-economic collapse. Where are all of the smart Lebanese people like my buddy to rectify this situation and Make Lebanon Great Again? Right here...in America!
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