Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In 2012, stories around the internet reported that over 108 million people were receiving government assistance in one form or another during the 2nd quarter of 2011. Those numbers did not include social security or medicare. At that time, the US Population was 310 million. That's roughly 35% of the country.
If you've ever been to a Food Stamp or WIC office, you'll notice that there are usually a handful of workers that are serving literally thousands of people that need benefits daily. It would take a massive hiring, retraining, and re-tooling of these services to "fix" them. Which, I'll agree with you, they are broken programs.
Personally, I think the programs should be administered by the states. Instead of one huge bureaucracy trying to manage one set of rules to apply to tens of millions of people, you get 50 individual bureaucracies which can tailor their rules to their individual populations. Additionally, they can look to how other states do things to see what the best practices turn out to be. This is the way the constitution is written to work in the first place.
Quote:
I've had an internship with the Health and Human Services Office in Tennessee several years ago (This was while W. was in office) and noticed illegal aliens would receive full benefits (without a drivers license or social security) while people that tried to work and pay their bills but needed help were denied.
I think in order to fix the problem, it'll cost way more than it's currently costing tax payers while it's broken.
There's an example of what I'm talking about - illegal immigrants. You can devote a lot more attention to the problem of illegal immigration when Arizona, which has a big problem with that, isn't constrained to follow the same procedures used in Idaho or some other place that has very little problem. Instead of the Federal government suing Arizona over its immigration laws it should have welcomed Arizona wanting to tackle the problem the way the Arizonan voters chose. Why were politicians from Washington suing Arizona for how Arizona wanted to handle a problem within their own borders? Why should it be the business of anybody but people living in Arizona? As long as the law in Arizona didn't actually violate any federal laws, so what? Meanwhile San Francisco declared itself a safe haven where illegal immigrants would be welcome. And again I say, good for you. If that's the way you want to handle it, and allocate your own state funds, then go for it. Two different parts of the country wanting to handle the same problem in different ways and politicians in Washington who aren't involved with either of them are going to decide how both of them have to do it. That is crazy to me.
And to the point of what you were saying - if the states were empowered to handle things themselves, then we wouldn't need to worry about overhauling the system costing so much that we need to leave it broken. Each state can target reforms to the particular problem that state is having. We don't need a massive national retooling of everything in that case.
Quote:
We've spent over $800 billion in stimulus and tax cuts.
It's estimated that we've spent over 3.2 trillion on the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
We currently spend over $25 billion in foreign aid.
This may be "liberal" thinking, but the money spent on stimulus alone was more than enough to make every man, woman, and child in America, all current 315 million of us a millionaire. How would that have worked for the economy? Instead, they chose to bail out banks and automakers that used a good chunk of the money for raises.
Yes a lot of corruption was involved there. But a concentration of money can do things that the same amount of money spread out can't do. One person with a million dollars can make investments, start a company, create jobs, etc. A million people with a dollar each can only buy a cup of coffee. So while a lot of money was simply wasted, jobs were saved that spreading the money out would not have saved.
Of course that assumes you had to do anything at all. If people hadn't been interfering in the mortgage market to begin with, there would have been no housing bubble to collapse, no loans defaulted on, etc. The whole snowball effect never would have gotten started. Then none of that bailout stuff would have been required in the first place.
Quote:
If we weren't paying for wars, paying to bailout greedy corporations, and hemorrhaging cash to countries that hate us, maybe we wouldn't have as many poor and struggling people. Maybe we could afford universal healthcare and things that, a country as rich as we are, should have.
Well as a conservative I wouldn't want universal healthcare. That's just yet another massive centralized system that I don't think would end up working. The places where it works are all small countries except perhaps China. But I don't think we want the kind of authoritarian government that allows China to function. I think universal healthcare would quickly turn into just the kind of nightmare you've already described seeing in your work experience.
You're about to make me lose my calm exterior again. Tell me you're not going to start with the collective MYTH of the American Dream. Please say it isn't so. If I hear any more about that BS, I'm going to scream.
The American Dream is alive and well. Millions of us are living the American Dream. Millions of us started with nothing and now have a comfortable lifestyle.
Confusing? Of course- you are a liberal and are using "liberal logic" (lack of common sense).
If one was to take ALL OF THE WEALTH and distribute it equally to every US citizen, within ten years, the current "rich" would be rich again, while the poor would be poor.
Did you ever stop to wonder why the poor are poor? How many relatively poor lottery winners do you see go broke in a short period of time?
Reason- most of the poor are-
1. idiots
2. uneducated
3. lack motivation
4. have poor cultural beliefs
5. have drug and alcohol problems
The above combination does not bode well for success, even if they were given massive amounts of money. They would blow it.
Confusing? Of course- you are a liberal and are using "liberal logic" (lack of common sense).
If one was to take ALL OF THE WEALTH and distribute it equally to every US citizen, within ten years, the current "rich" would be rich again, while the poor would be poor.
Did you ever stop to wonder why the poor are poor? How many relatively poor lottery winners do you see go broke in a short period of time?
Reason- most of the poor are-
1. idiots
2. uneducated
3. lack motivation
4. have poor cultural beliefs
5. have drug and alcohol problems
The above combination does not bode well for success, even if they were given massive amounts of money. They would blow it.
What about the poor or middle class people who become rich? You claim to be rich, were you born rich?
Ironic that someone who equates a political ideology with logic whines about idiots or uneducated people
You're about to make me lose my calm exterior again. Tell me you're not going to start with the collective MYTH of the American Dream. Please say it isn't so. If I hear any more about that BS, I'm going to scream. I've never heard so much BS as that American Dream crap that comes out of right wingers' mouths daily, about how there are no social classes here, how the American Dream is true, how the poor are lazy, how all one has to do is work like a horse and all poor can get out of poverty, etc. etc. sh_t and more sh_t. Then, when you people aren't busy smearing all those collective mythologies around, you get busy giving everyone the exceptional humans who managed (through special breaks, sheer magic, or genius I.Q.s to break through the social constrictions in this country.
When will I find 1 right winger that makes any sort of sense or tells 1 bit of truth?
You deny that we are training generations of poor to sit around and wait for their government assistance, in whatever form it may come?
The American Dream is alive and well. Millions of us are living the American Dream. Millions of us started with nothing and now have a comfortable lifestyle.
If you missed out, it's your fault.
The number I generally see sighted is 80% of American Millionaires are first generation Millionaires. Which means they didn't inherit their wealth; they earned it.
Sure does sound like the American Dream to me.
While at age 32, I'm not a millionaire yet, I'm more than a 10th of the way there.
The number I generally see cited is 80% of American Millionaires are first generation Millionaires. Which means they didn't inherit their wealth; they earned it.
Sure does sound like the American Dream to me.
Exactly!
Liberals absolutely HATE when that FACT is posted.
Quote:
While at age 32, I'm not a millionaire yet, I'm more than a 10th of the way there.
Confusing? Of course- you are a liberal and are using "liberal logic" (lack of common sense).
If one was to take ALL OF THE WEALTH and distribute it equally to every US citizen, within ten years, the current "rich" would be rich again, while the poor would be poor.
Did you ever stop to wonder why the poor are poor? How many relatively poor lottery winners do you see go broke in a short period of time?
Reason- most of the poor are-
1. idiots
2. uneducated
3. lack motivation
4. have poor cultural beliefs
5. have drug and alcohol problems
The above combination does not bode well for success, even if they were given massive amounts of money. They would blow it.
I think you conservatives really need to make up your mind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fordlover
The number I generally see sighted is 80% of American Millionaires are first generation Millionaires. Which means they didn't inherit their wealth; they earned it.
Sure does sound like the American Dream to me.
While at age 32, I'm not a millionaire yet, I'm more than a 10th of the way there.
I think you conservatives really need to make up your mind.
Don, those two points are not mutually exclusive.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
