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Darwin would recommend that.
Not because they're poor, but because they're not healthy.
It's true that healthy people need health care if they're run over by a bus.
But the bus company has insurance to pay for that, so it doesn't really count.
Allowing unhealthy people to live and reproduce is a big factor in raising overall health care costs.
Darwinian evolution doesn't pick winners and losers it serves to ensure survival of the species, so with that in mind; the poor have traits that might serve the species better than a lot of middle class or wealthy pseudo intellectuals.
Think about it, they have more children, frequently by more than one father (genetic diversity) and do whatever they need to extract the wealth necessary to provide for them. Sooo just maybe "Darwin would recommend" that they are worth more to the species than you are.
That's not the point. The point is we can look at third world countries as a model for what conservatives in this country proposes. You guys keep telling us that hunger is a great motivator and that if we cut social benefits then the poor will start working and pay their fair share. But the problem is almost all 3rd world countries have no social benefits to speak of and they still have armies of poor starving people roaming around. And these poor starving people seem to have no problem propagating considering their birthrates are the highest in the world. The poorer they are, the more they reproduce.
In other words, cutting people off in this country will not work. In fact, it will probably create more poor people than ever before (in this country). The poorer people are, the more they will reproduce. This is a fact of life.
I don't disagree, except that I think there are a number of girls who see no other path but aren't really considering welfare, some girls actually believe that having a baby will mean that baby daddy will settle down and live with them, others see anything preferable over what they have which frequently involves being a caretaker for younger siblings or other relatives leaving her with little time for school or other experiences most young women might enjoy.
I don't have any great solutions but I have an idea of what might help. Recruit a corps of grandmothers in poor communities, pay them to stay in contact with girls from the time they are 12 or 13. Keep an eye on them, make sure they go to school and smack em when they start hinting about getting married or having babies and do a lot of finger wagging. Each Grandma would meet with her young female wards regularly, sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. If necessary pay the girls to interact with their 'grandma'.
One of my best friends retired early from a great job and started volunteering in a local high school, he became a mentor to poor black boys who didn't have a relationship with their father, he scolded them, hugged them and taught them how a real man acts. He was ex military and for the boys who weren't going on to college he would take them to meet the local recruiter, a good number of those kids ended up doing very well in the military and led successful lives. For the kids with college aspirations he would drive them to colleges and arrange tours of the campus, help them apply for scholarships etc. He's 74 and still going strong, he said the biggest joys in his life is getting a wedding invitation from one of his 'kids' who graduated 5 or 10 years ago and waited until they were on their way to a successful career before thinking about marrying or having kids.
Oh, absolutely. I have also seen many many girls go via this route. The problem is 9 out of 10 cases getting pregnant actually drives the guy away. And then the girls have no choice but to get on welfare.
It's not logical. I know a lot of (normal) people have trouble understanding or believing my observations. The choices that poor people make often make no sense at all. And yet, they make those choices anyway. There are even people that will purposefully sabotage their lives to ensure that they remain desperate simply because any change in their situation is scary. Most poor people can't tell whether a change is positive or negative. Therefore, any change is scary. I've seen people purposefully not show up to work once they got a good paying job. I've seen people inherit money from long lost relatives only to spend it all in a couple months. I once knew a girl that inherited $70k from her long lost father only to spend it all in 8 months or so. When she exhausted that money, she had nothing to show for it. She didn't even have enough to pay the impound to get her car back. Just a little over a year after she inherited that money, she went from having a minimum wage job and an apartment to having no job at all and homeless.
The cause of poverty is not the lack of money or job. These things are symptoms. This is why we as a society have spent so much money on welfare for decades and have yielded very little result. We need to take a new approach to this problem.
I don't have all the answers. But here are some things that will definitely help.
-Job training
-Education
-More education
-Mental health counseling
-Sex Ed
-Encouragement
-Financial training (you'd be amazed how many people have no understanding of compounded interest)
-More law enforcement, a lot more
-More funding for agents to track down cases of abuse of the system
One universal theme I keep seeing is poor people are afraid to have an income above a certain line. Why? Because there's a cutoff line where they will lose all their benefits if they earn above a certain level. This makes no sense to me. I've seen people purposefully working less hours and not take promotions just so they could keep their benefits. So, I'm proposing rather than have a cutoff line, we have a phasing out program. Or something. Anything. I don't care. Just do something to change the current system. Because right now, the system actually encourages people to remain in the lowest of the low income bracket.
Oh, absolutely. I have also seen many many girls go via this route. The problem is 9 out of 10 cases getting pregnant actually drives the guy away. And then the girls have no choice but to get on welfare.
It's not logical. I know a lot of (normal) people have trouble understanding or believing my observations. The choices that poor people make often make no sense at all. And yet, they make those choices anyway. There are even people that will purposefully sabotage their lives to ensure that they remain desperate simply because any change in their situation is scary. Most poor people can't tell whether a change is positive or negative. Therefore, any change is scary. I've seen people purposefully not show up to work once they got a good paying job. I've seen people inherit money from long lost relatives only to spend it all in a couple months. I once knew a girl that inherited $70k from her long lost father only to spend it all in 8 months or so. When she exhausted that money, she had nothing to show for it. She didn't even have enough to pay the impound to get her car back. Just a little over a year after she inherited that money, she went from having a minimum wage job and an apartment to having no job at all and homeless.
The cause of poverty is not the lack of money or job. These things are symptoms. This is why we as a society have spent so much money on welfare for decades and have yielded very little result. We need to take a new approach to this problem.
I don't have all the answers. But here are some things that will definitely help.
-Job training
-Education
-More education
-Mental health counseling
-Sex Ed
-Encouragement
-Financial training (you'd be amazed how many people have no understanding of compounded interest)
-More law enforcement, a lot more
-More funding for agents to track down cases of abuse of the system
One universal theme I keep seeing is poor people are afraid to have an income above a certain line. Why? Because there's a cutoff line where they will lose all their benefits if they earn above a certain level. This makes no sense to me. I've seen people purposefully working less hours and not take promotions just so they could keep their benefits. So, I'm proposing rather than have a cutoff line, we have a phasing out program. Or something. Anything. I don't care. Just do something to change the current system. Because right now, the system actually encourages people to remain in the lowest of the low income bracket.
The entire TANF program is a huge joke, we should just give the women the money we spend on administering that monster of a program and start reducing the money incrementally over time, but as the funds are decreased the amount that can be earned and kept without losing benefits should increase. We treat people on welfare like they are 12 year olds, here's a little cash, here's a card to buy food with, here's another one for baby formula. Just give them cash let them learn to manage it or suffer the real life consequences.
One of the stupidest things I have ever seen was when I worked with poor women & their children in Reno, the max. cash grant for a mother and two kids is $383 a month, they also get about $540 in SNAP and there are no readily available housing resources, so if mom needs to rent a place (usually a weekly room) she sells 1/2 of her food stamps and puts the $270 cash with her $383 cash to pay rent. That leaves her with $270 in SNAP and basically nothing for transportation, clothing or other expenses. If they simply gave her $923 cash she would fare much better
The entire TANF program is a huge joke, we should just give the women the money we spend on administering that monster of a program and start reducing the money incrementally over time, but as the funds are decreased the amount that can be earned and kept without losing benefits should increase. We treat people on welfare like they are 12 year olds, here's a little cash, here's a card to buy food with, here's another one for baby formula. Just give them cash let them learn to manage it or suffer the real life consequences.
One of the stupidest things I have ever seen was when I worked with poor women & their children in Reno, the max. cash grant for a mother and two kids is $383 a month, they also get about $540 in SNAP and there are no readily available housing resources, so if mom needs to rent a place (usually a weekly room) she sells 1/2 of her food stamps and puts the $270 cash with her $383 cash to pay rent. That leaves her with $270 in SNAP and basically nothing for transportation, clothing or other expenses. If they simply gave her $923 cash she would fare much better
We can agree that the current instituted programs simply do not work. The proof that they do not work are all around us if we care to look. And yet, no politician or anyone in charge will lift a finger to try to fix these programs. 5+ decades of welfare programs meant to lift people out of poverty have done little. We still have generational poverty everywhere. It is a travesty that we have grown to be the richest and most powerful nation in the history of the world and we still haven't got the political will to make the necessary changes to tackle the problem of poverty.
Speaking as a liberal, I blame both liberals and conservatives alike for our failed policies.
Added by edit.
One thing I have to share here. Earlier this evening, I went to the gym. On my way home, I gave into my occasional cravings and stopped by Popeye's. Ordered a couple of breasts. While I waited for my chicken, I asked the cashier, a young man, how his evening was going? He said in a happy voice it's going great! He asked me what's better than earning money? I just shook my head and he said exactly, very few things!
That brought a smile to my face. Good to see a young man in his teens having such an attitude about work and earning money. I've been working since I was 16, so I really like seeing young people have good work ethics.
Is medicaid not welfare? Why did you not include the 527 billion dollars spent by the federal government (aka taxpayers) in your "calculations"?
Any way you look at it, your math is off - arguably, way off. According to that chart, welfare represents less than 25% of federal spending, and about 1/16 of all government spending (local, state, and federal.)
Granted, 25% is still a lot, but your argument is weakened when you use inaccurate figures to support it.
Social security isn't welfare. For the clueless, we all paid into that with our own dime. What's so bad about giving to our own citizens if they are in need? I would rather give to welfare than more money to the military. What about corporate welfare? Some of these large corporations haven't paid taxes in a long time. Farmers also get a subsidy so please quit acting like welfare is breaking us. Wait until Trump puts up that wall then you will see skyrocketing deficits. Let's build up our infrastructure and make the wealthy pay more instead of cutting their taxes.
Currently we are spending 1.127 trillion dollars on welfare benefits. This consists of welfare and medicaid. That works out to a little over 3500 dollars for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
Can we continue to spend 1/3 of every tax dollar on welfare?
I am not against helping those in need but it seems as if we need a different approach to helping.
How much can we continue to spend on a insane Defense budget ?
We have over 10,000 NUCLEAR bombs that can destroy our planet and almost a TRILLION DOLLAR plus defense budget but you are WORRIED about some poor Single Mother with a few kids that can buy a few steaks & potato chips with her $200 Dollars in Food stamps A MONTH !
If you want to get rid of Welfare you can start by raising the Minimum Wage to the point that people can afford FOOD & HEALTHCARE !...
Go see how many Military families are also on FOOD STAMPS too !
46 Million Americans of FOOD Stamps is a American failure !
FOOD over BOMBS !!!!!
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