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I don't understand your view of the wast of food stamps in particular.
What makes you single this out?
I also worked in housing for many years and worked in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity on various projects.
Due to my work, I know that foodstamps is probably the cheapeast and least wasteful of the social welfare programs we offer to poor Americans (and legal alien residents).
I'm going to have to disagree with that based on the HUGE differential in adult obesity rates.
The Federal Government supplies food stamps to poor adults enrolled in the program, resulting in a 44% obesity rate among adult food stamp recipients, which is 33% higher than the obesity rates of the income-eligible adults who DON'T get food stamps and those with higher income who of course aren't even eligible for food stamps (33% and 32%, respectively).
USDA's obesity rate data:
Income-eligible adults who get food stamps: 44% obesity rate.
Income-eligible adults who choose to not get food stamps: 33% obesity rate.
Non-income-eligible adults who of course don't even qualify for food stamps: 32% obesity rate.
The 2 most common misconceptions is that liberals are OK with welfare abuse and liberals are not just as angry as everyone else at the Muslim extremist terrorists. The opening poster, even as a liberal, has fallen into this trap.
There is no question there is public assistance abuse. We have all heard the stories of people trying to get these folks trained so they can work and support themselves only to learn that the person is actually better off financially if they stay on welfare. Or they simply don't want to bother getting up for work if they can get money and food for free.
It's a huge problem and I'm not sure what the solution is because there are most definitely people who need these programs, a lot of people, and cutting there benefits would be a tragic mistake.
I doubt unlimited, unmanaged, unskilled immigration is the solution.
So... How many tens of thousands of $$$ in debt did you each go into to go to college? And have you paid that off yet?
I can only speak for myself. I got about 30k left.
All my brothers and sisters have theirs paid off long ago. They are all upper middle class, so it is not an issue any more. The first of my nephews and nieces to go to college will be going to college soon. Her dad, my brother, told me he will pay cash for his kids' colleges.
I can only speak for myself. I got about 30k left.
How did you rack up so much debt? Why didn't you manage your education costs better? 2 years at a community college that has an articulation agreement with the state university system, and then on to the best state university for which you qualify for the final 2 years.
How did you rack up so much debt? Why didn't you manage your education costs better? 2 years at a community college that has an articulation agreement with the state university system, and then on to the best state university for which you qualify for the final 2 years.
Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?
We were uneducated. We did not speak much english. We were pretty much wandering in the dark.
I'm a professional nowadays. I manage multi million dollar projects. Looking back, sure there were plenty of things I could have done that were more efficient. But since I'm first gen college educated...
We were uneducated. We did not speak much english. We were pretty much wandering in the dark.
I'm a professional nowadays. I manage multi million dollar projects. Looking back, sure there were plenty of things I could have done that were more efficient. But since I'm first gen college educated...
You are not being fair with your questions.
InformedConsent is a far right libertarian who wants to eliminate medicare, social security, public schools and everything else that the plutocrats hate because he thinks he will be better off living in a society akin to Haiti with non-existent, weak and corrupt government. This is freedom to InformedConsent.
I've asked the same question countless times: We've been throwing money at the poor for decades...there's still poor people. It's obviously not working. So what should we do?
GET RID OF THE ILLEGALS!
You do that one thing, get rid of the illegals, you'll open up all kinds of jobs for the unskilled, the rent prices will plummet due to all of the vacancies, the cost of food will not go up much at all, people can start working for their money instead of having it added to a plastic card every month. Because we won't be supporting illegals anymore, because more people will be working again and not receiving welfare, we can cut some of those taxes and keep more of our paychecks. People buy when they have money...that is good for business. When business is doing good, they need more people...more jobs, the cycle continues.
In addition to that one thing:
I've stated that they need to learn something, take a course to give them a skill that will bring them money like a welder, or baker, or plumber, whatever. That could be offered in some way and it would be cheaper than adding money to a plastic card every month for God knows how long - because people LIE when they have to renew every six months or year or whatever it is. "No, I'm not making any money", even though they are it's just paid under the table so that they can keep getting hand outs.
In addition to teaching them a skill, offer some counseling. I happen to know someone who is perpetually poor because she spends the money as soon as she gets it...and every month there's a new drama about bills and having to get this fixed or that purchased...so clearly there's something going on there that needs to be addressed. Well, therapy isn't cheap, and people aren't going to pay for it when they can spend it at Amazon...so offer it as part of a condition to getting any assistance at all.
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