How does America compare with other First World Countries in the percentage of people on some type of welfare? (Corporate Profits, wages)
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When I see all the stories about the large number of kids in America getting reduced priced lunches at school, or the number of people on Food Stamps or the number of people who get Section 8 Housing Assistance, I always wonder how large our poor/disadvantaged population is in comparison to other so called Rich Countries. How do we compare with places like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc.
Do all these countries have as many poor people living on government handouts as we do?
When I see all the stories about the large number of kids in America getting reduced priced lunches at school, or the number of people on Food Stamps or the number of people who get Section 8 Housing Assistance, I always wonder how large our poor/disadvantaged population is in comparison to other so called Rich Countries. How do we compare with places like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc.
Do all these countries have as many poor people living on government handouts as we do?
The USA has far and away the weakest, most punitive social safety net in all the industrialized world. The US does less to help its poor than any other advanced country.
The USA has far and away the weakest, most punitive social safety net in all the industrialized world. The US does less to help its poor than any other advanced country.
The USA has far and away the weakest, most punitive social safety net in all the industrialized world. The US does less to help its poor than any other advanced country.
This is not about race because most First World Countries have an ethnically diverse population and people who work in low wage unskilled jobs.
I know that it isn't but it doesn't matter if it's about race on these threads. Someone will come in all halfcocked after reading the title of the thread and assume you're making some slight against African Americans or Latinos and proceed to "tell you about how you're wrong."
Practically everyone in America benefits from government programs. They just don't realize it. Have a 30-year mortgage? That's a government program. Get a break on your property taxes because you live in your home? That's a government program. Send your kids to a public college or university? That's a government program. Ever visit one of our national parks? That's a government program.
The fact is, by far the biggest beneficiaries of government programs are the wealthy and corporations. There is not a single major industry in this country, from agribusiness to aerospace, that survives without massive public subsidies. These come in the form of tax breaks, government contracts and so-called "foreign aid" (actually a form of export subsidy where foreign government get money from US taxpayers on the condition they use it to purchase US goods and services).
However, the only time people who benefit from government programs get called "free loaders" are when they are poor and/or black and/or Latino. How does that tally?
When I see all the stories about the large number of kids in America getting reduced priced lunches at school, or the number of people on Food Stamps or the number of people who get Section 8 Housing Assistance, I always wonder how large our poor/disadvantaged population is in comparison to other so called Rich Countries. How do we compare with places like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, etc.
Do all these countries have as many poor people living on government handouts as we do?
It's hard to compare, as every country is different. Canada, for instance, doesn't have food stamps. I've never seen a food stamp here in my life.
All this welfare correlates with shrinking wages and job opportunities, increased disparity between rich and poor, dramatically increasing corporate profits and the fact that a lot of people have simply given up the race to consume everything they are supposed to and live in a first-world sort of gilded 'squalor'.
What part of global corporatism and its ways and means being foisted onto society sounds insane to most Americans? Or is fear and the habit of wishing for a happy ending w/o too much fuss the things that keeps most people obeisant to this sort of environment?
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