First let me say that I respect your opinion and I can feel the frustration in your posts; I share some of them.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: Most countries you do not work, you do not eat... You make choices to only have as many kids as you can feed. You do not buy bling or new cars or crack or dope. You work hard and pass those values to your kids.
You might think that, and it might sound good in your head but it's actually wrong. I've lived in two other (S. Korea and Japan) countries and they both had social "parachutes" of one form or another. I've traveled extensively in many other countries and noticed the same. Even countries that are too poor themselves to provide such benefits to their citizens accept these services from outside organizations (UNICEF?). What you are again doing is making general statements regarding all people who receive government assistance based upon the few that abuse the system. I grew up on welfare because my family was, well, dirt poor. We worked hard, I mowed yards from 13 years old plus and put in and then when I was old enough to gain full-time regular employment, I did so. According to you, I should have been pissing it all away on drugs and blinging out my non-existent car instead of helping my injured father put food on the table and pay bills. I'm not trying to garner respect or awe you, or anyone, by sharing my story here but to show you that people do work hard and do share values with their kids; we're the ones that make it out and are able to break the chains of poverty. Reading further on, it sounds like some folks in your family got the idea too. Read some studies on generational poverty and collective intelligence though; if the "hood" is all you know, you live what you know. It's not always easy for people to break out but people do and that's what makes all the help worth it.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: The government supplementing those jobs with food stamps and welfare is why Americans put up with those low paying jobs...Eliminate the supplements and watch what happens...People who can not feed their kids get pissed and take action to either get a job that pays enough or get together with others to effect real change, which neither party wants...
People are fed up with them now or haven't you been watching the news? Protest after protest in front of walmarts and other businesses asking for more wages. Local and state governments protecting businesses from workers who want to unionize so that they are able to act collectively. Sound familiar? It should. It's pretty similar to the labor movement sans the violence.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: Welfare in America is designed to keep people down. Look what happened before welfare when enough people got hungry...They got pissed enough to effect better paying jobs at the nation level and more of the wealth went to more of the country.
We're going to differ here. It may have evolved to be this way but it was originally created to help people who were barely making it to make ends meet for their families during times of hardship. All of these programs were meant to be short term; people would hit a hiccup in life, need a hand up, get a little help for a few weeks or months and then move on. It still does work this way. I know it does because I worked the job. Yes, I was a Social Worker, I had a case load with an end average of 620ish families. Sure there were generational welfare recipients; I had 4 generations from the same family in my interview room at the same time one day, but there were also people that came in because dad (or mom) lost their job and they needed some help. I gotta tell you that I loved getting those phone calls from people after a few weeks, a month or even a few months asking me close their case; damn near the best feeling in the world. Again, it's easy to get tied up in the negative stereotypes, I'm guilty of the same; I guess I'm lucky in that I've had those positive experiences where I saw the system work the way it's supposed to.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: That will not happen now as long as there is welfare and food stamps and that is by design. Having the government take wealth from the rich to give as it pleases to the poor ends one way. Look at Venezuela where they just nationalized their Best Buys...
Yeah, it's called taxes and it's been going on for as long as there's been people. The Roman Senate passed out Bread to the Plebes and forgave debt (Saudi Arabia still does). Venezuela's an extreme example. I'm all for doing away with things like the EITC (earned income tax credit); why in Christ's name should you ever get more in taxes back than you ever put in? Feeding people is one thing, giving medical treatment to needy kids is great too; giving people money they didn't earn? nope. The breeders already get money from me and my wife through real estate taxes that I'll never benefit from because we don't have kids and won't be sending anyone to an area school.
Redistribution of wealth occurs in one form or another in all 1st world countries; I'm not sure what your point here is. Scandinavian countries are absolute havens for this concept.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: A person does not respect what is given to them as charity...it demeans them and breaks down the family.Welfare steals respect.
Won't argue here. I agree; make them earn it somehow. When I worked at
DHS, I said there's more than one way to institutionalize someone; they don't just have to go to prison for it to happen. That said, there appears to also be a right way to do it (see the Scandinavian country thing).
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: The country cannot survive the way it is going with over half the country not working and the rest feeding those who will not work via taxes which the government gives out as it pleases.
Eh, what? You lost me there, man. 1/2 the country's not on foodstamps. We're a country of over 300 million of which 47 million are on food stamps; current estimates are that the number has peaked and will decline over the next decade. Here's an interesting article from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/23/why-are-47-million-americans-on-food-stamps-its-the-recession-mostly/
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: I do not hate the poor, my family grew up very poor for over 100 years and it was individual family members who chose the military as a way out over several generations who changed that part of the family.
Not everyone has that option. I was an honor recruit and a squad leader in the young marines in
HS and well on my way to enlisting when I graduated, then a car accident and ear surgery took that option from me. I agree that people should be responsible for themselves but how do we, as a society, help them without telling them what to do? Because telling people what to do in the US is apparently a no-no.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: I have cousins and nephews and nieces still collecting welfare and food stamps and as long as it's free they will keep taking it and never accomplish anything in their lives...
I do too. I even have a niece who abuses the system and will ever be a worthless waste of flesh that will never be more than a drag on the rest of humanity. Does that mean we should tank the whole system because she is still taking in oxygen? Nope. I have some hope for her kids.
NeedleOfInquiry wrote: I know what I am talking about and the best thing that could ever happen to them is for the supply to be cut off...
I can agree with you in part. It should be similar to TANF in that there's a time limit for benefits. The programs should have a maximum number of months of usage (except for Medicaid for kids). I'd also recommend amendments to the WIA (Workforce Investment Act); this is a worthless piece of legislation that is just a sinkhole of taxpayer money. Make the WIA useful by providing job-skill determination and training for welfare recipients. Teach them a skill so they don't need welfare anymore.
