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I think i made a bit stupid comments, but the thing is. I live in a country where we have this very problem. The unemployment/social benefits cover your cost of having an apartment, and very basic needs (food, clothing..) and unless you have work, you will be qualified for them. If you never work in your life, you will qualify for them every month in your life. We have very high unemployment, and at the same time, a perpetual shortage of workers in lower paying service sector jobs.. janitors, dishwashers, mail carriers, security guards, bus drivers, cashiers. See.. in those jobs, you can't make alot more than what the unemplyment or social benefits pay you anyway. In fact.. if you want to make extra bucks while on benefits.. it's very easy. Get a "gray" job... these are basically jobs that don't exist in any papers or books. The pay comes "under the table". You don't need a whole lot of connections here to find one.
So why exactly would anyone want to bust their ass for minimum wage 8-10 hours every day. When you can get the same money by raising unemployment, and working a few hours some days a month on a "gray" job. On your off days, you can drink beer, and go to a demonstration in front of the parliament, trash and burn everything that comes to your sight on your way there, wear a black hoodie, and hold a sign "the government sucks, we want more money!"
Where does the money come from to pay benefits to the unemployed? From a tax that the state and sometimes the feds impose on business.
Go to your state government website see if you can figure out about how much an employer has to pay per employee. It is generally wage based plus a few other factors. Most often there is a wage cap. In AZ employers stop paying once an employees wages reach a mere $7,000 per year and the tax rate is only about 2% - that's $140 a year in to the fund. That is why benefits are so low.
I think that is ridiculously low. The wage cap should be something on the order of twice the federal minimum wage which is now $7.25 an hour or $15,080 per year.
In the form of let's say... Medicare and Medicaid? Amtrak?
Yeah, right, Amtrak is one of the biggest companies in the world, accounting for more wealth turnover than McDonalds, WalMart and Exxon Mobil all put together. Amtrak is tying up, what, 2 or 3 trillion that ought to be in private hands to generate enough income to build about a thousand new golf courses and yacht harbors, so this can finally become a truly great nation.
Unemloyment is really not meant as a living wage but a supplement to savings.If they raised it to a living wages many would work just part of the year.Also it would rqaise prices as the cost l;ike everything else would just be passed on to consumers.
Yeah, right, Amtrak is one of the biggest companies in the world, accounting for more wealth turnover than McDonalds, WalMart and Exxon Mobil all put together. Amtrak is tying up, what, 2 or 3 trillion that ought to be in private hands to generate enough income to build about a thousand new golf courses and yacht harbors, so this can finally become a truly great nation.
Come back when you have a clue.
Where exactly does Medicaid and Medicare get the money to run them, when compared to McDonalds, WalMart and ExxonMobil.
Where exactly does Medicaid and Medicare get the money to run them, when compared to McDonalds, WalMart and ExxonMobil.
Medicare is exactly the same kind of insurance policy that is sold by mega-corporations, and the same as your Geico car insurance. Policyholders pay premiums for it out of their earnings, and get the benefits when needed. No general tax revenues. The only difference is that there isn't anybody lolling on a $5-million sailboat in the Caribbean with several hot babes, at the expense of the insured, and you don't have to watch several dozen TV commercials for Medicare today, all paid for out of your pocket. And your doctor doesn't have to charge you to hire extra staff, to laboriously fill out the claim forms for a couple of hundred different Medicare payers who all have different forms, exclusions and requirements, nor do you have to pay for a big staff of claims adjusters whose sole purpose in life is to deny your claim, and then pay out of pocket when they deny it.
That's nothing compared with the money to run the Iraq spree, the Pentagon's 7-year spring break. I didn't hear you clamoring to privatize that. Even though quite a bit of it was privatized, and nearly all the trillion dollar cost is being recouped by profeteers. It's perfectly OK for me and my grandchildren to pick up the tab for your state-run vandalism. Nanny vandals.
Draw for me, please, exactly where the dividing line runs between what America needs, to be publicly funded, (golf courses, etc.) and whimsical luxuries (health, etc.) to be paid for out of the toil of the individual users.
It's perfectly OK for me and my grandchildren to pick up the tab for your state-run vandalism. Nanny vandals.
Hmm... like i said. I live in the northern edge of the European Union, less than 300 miles from what used to be the Soviet Union. I'm not a US citizen, therefore i don't vote in any of your elections and i haven't ever paid one penny in taxes to the US. I can assure you that i have no connections to your politics or your military. We have our own country and our own military, and those are what concerns me, not yours. So don't call it "your state-run vandalism".. i have much less to do with the Iraq war than you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Draw for me, please, exactly where the dividing line runs between what America needs, to be publicly funded, (golf courses, etc.) and whimsical luxuries (health, etc.) to be paid for out of the toil of the individual users.
That's really up to ya'll in the states. We have our own system here, and a few posts back i gave a small glimpse of how it works. It's alot different than the US systems. It has it's good points, but it's very far from perfect. If you want to know more about it, i can look up some good links for you
If you want to know more about it, i can look up some good links for you
My apolgies for neglecting to look up your location. Although my remarks fell under the heading of replies to your post, they are obviously intended to address conservative Americans who reflect similar sympathies, and constitute the majority of thought here.
Anybody can find links. It would be refreshing for a change to hear what other countries are like from people who live there. A link about your tango festival would be less helpful than one about your own everyday life. Most of the posters here have never been anywhere, except maybe the gated compound of a 4-star beach hotel.
Last edited by jtur88; 08-01-2009 at 09:51 AM..
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