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Lots of people complain about the US becoming a welfare state. Let's explore the consequences of the US government severely cutting back or even completely eliminating welfare. Would society be in chaos because of this?
I was in a grocery store several years ago when there was a temporary glitch in the EBT system.... I am pretty sure they let them just take the food. So judging by that I would say yes, total chaos. That was a glitch where the system was down for less than a day, imagine 3 days, a week, a month or all together ceasing benefits. There would be looting and riots. You can't take peoples last line of defense and money that they live by and expect them to be obidient, upstanding citizens. Not to mention all the old vets that rely on their social security checks every month. I am sure they wouldn't be happy campers.
Lots of people complain about the US becoming a welfare state. Let's explore the consequences of the US government severely cutting back or even completely eliminating welfare. Would society be in chaos because of this?
Enough people don't appear to know the definition of welfare because many people lump any payment from the government as welfare. My suggestion is to start with a definition of welfare. If you feel like I'm hijacking your thread, don't hesitate to let me know and I'll buzz out.
It's a .org, so I know the info is accurate enough.
If welfare is terminated, I believe in the possible consequences I listed with the program
and termination result.
- Food stamps stop and people will starve. Crime will likely increase.
- Social Security Income (SSI for low to no income people and the elderly) is for
disabled. Remove it and people will be homeless and starving and still disabled with
no assistance available it will kill them and our government will be responsible for that.
- HUD - Section 8 housing will also put people in the streets or move in and overcrowd
someone else home into various messes.
- Take away Medicare and no one will need death panels. People will just die.
- Drug use will go up to not see the reality of the horrible state of living.
- Kids won't be eating much (in poor families that happens now). Graduation rates will tank.
Literacy will become a word they don't understand.
Some programs have already been modified to have time limits on them.
Terminating these and other programs may well lead the poor who just became poorer into an uprising that would do serious damage to those of us living above the poverty level. Take this away from people and what's left for them ... why bother living and they will lash out, so having a rifle may lend a modicum of protection for us.
If it were done suddenly, then yes, there would be a great deal of upset.
If it were reduced in scope slowly there would be negative effects but not chaos. The big questions in such a case would be how slow a pace would be required to avoid chaotic consequences and whether the long term negatives would outweigh the long term benefits. In some cases I believe they would, in others they would not.
Lots of people complain about the US becoming a welfare state. Let's explore the consequences of the US government severely cutting back or even completely eliminating welfare. Would society be in chaos because of this?
Since this query offers no distinction between the various forms of "welfare" let's assume that the individual type of welfare was cut back "severely", yes, there would be riots and chaos. Moderator cut: off topic
It's a common statement on the left in a sort of implied "give-us-what-we-want-or-riots" but let's be real, there would be some isolated incidents and probably an increase in theft the cost of which would be borne by the neighborhoods and communities of the people doing it as their locals stores closed or raised prices, but widespread chaos? Unlikely.
Quote:
Originally Posted by james777
Why do you want to cut government assistance to the poor? Are you that cold hearted? Do you really think that your taxes will go down if welfare is cut? Your taxes won't go down because government officials will just find another way to throw the money to the wind. If you want government to run more efficiently how about advocating cutting entire departments and abolishing some municipalities, letting other jurisdictions pick up the services.
I don't know where you come from and recognize different parts of the country are, well, different, but speaking from knowledge of my own neck of the woods the savings from proposed merging municipalities are relatively small and the people aggressively pushing it - with the exception of a few grassroots movements in the smallest towns - are almost never people who are honestly seeking savings and almost always people looking to seize the financial and social resources of better-off areas.
If all welfare is suddenly stopped, there would be chaos for 2-4 years. After that, there would be a massive turnover of Congress and the Presidency to restore the benefits.
It would negatively impact businesses, both large and small. The instablity of the populace would not be made up with less taxes.
For the purposes of this thread the only type of welfare being discussed is assistance to individuals. Bringing up government assistance to entities will result in posts being deleted as off topic.
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When I post in bold red that is moderator action and, per the TOS, can only be discussed through Direct Message.
I had plenty of relatives who were alive before and during the period of time when FDR was starting various programs, and returning to the way things were before then would be beyond chaos. People- including children- dying because they could not afford health care, infant mortality, and much more crime.
No, I don't go with the "survival of the fittest" or "only the strong survive" approach at all. That's the approach found in wild animals.
Additionally, as reported below, fully 50% of all American children will spend at least some of their childhood in a household where someone receives food stamps (bolded emphasis is mine):
"Contrary to popular belief, the percentage of the population that directly encounters poverty is exceedingly high. My research indicates that nearly 40 percentof Americans between the ages of 25 and 60 will experience at least one year below the official poverty line during that period ($23,492 for a family of four), and 54 percent will spend a year in poverty or near poverty (below 150 percent of the poverty line).
Even more astounding, if we add in related conditions like welfare use, near-poverty and unemployment, four out of five Americans will encounter one or more of these events."
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