I sure wish the left-bloggers would quit writing about all the moronic things the right-wing bloggers, radio talk show hosts, TV commentators and politicians are saying. I avoid that stuff for a reason and if I want to read whacko shit, I’ll go to the source. Repeating it, even to ridicule, just keeps the nonsense in circulation.
With one exception. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Asylum). Everything she says is priceless.
I agree! Political discourse, on all sides, includes a SIGNIFICANT amount of nonsense and noise.
We ought to do postings and other things in order to ‘raise’ the level of discourse (at least here).
I’ll start it off.
The conservative ‘philosophy’, at least in my eyes, includes a strong aversion to ‘welfare’ at least in the way its practiced today. My basic reason for disliking welfare is that it ALWAYS results in making welfare recipients dependant on the ‘giver’. It’s worse when the giver is required, under penalty of law, to contribute to the effort. I fully realize that some people absolutely need help just to survive. My mother depended on me for many years. On the other side one of my nieces figured out early on that she could increase her welfare income by having more children since each new child meant another $500 per month. She’s NEVER going to get off welfare because she’s absolutely dependent on those payments as are all her children. Her latest man makes no bones about it. He tells everyone he talks to that he’s completely free. He eats every day, sleeps in a comfortable bed, has a car and a 52 inch TV. Undoubtedly, this will go on until they need a raise then they’ll just pop out another one. Instant 25% raise. Neither of them has a job nor the skill set required to get and keep a job. I count six people there who will never move into a different, self sufficient, lifestyle.
There must be a better way.
What is the basic principle behind your ‘liberalness’.
How can $500/Mo meet the expenses of a child unless you starve them. This is either BS or something out of “Oliver Twist”.
*sigh*
Let me boil down the conservative “thinking” of Ephraim:
Poor people don’t deserve help because of certain anecdotes.
Though I have had some computer time, I haven’t had much thinking time. So bear with me Ephraim, your question — “What is the basic principle behind your ‘liberalness’” — deserves a thoughtful response.
Old Bogus has brought up an issue that I have given a lot of thought to, and to which I should like to respond. First, though, I’d like to say that no one who is on welfare lives high on the hog. Getting by maybe, but not living it up. (Some guys and gals may be living free on the kids’ dole, as related by Ephraim, but there are definitely limits as to how well they are living.)
I personally believe welfare has its place. While many people certainly do take advantage of the system, and others become victims to the mentality and circumstances welfare sometimes creates and perpetuates, there are plenty of people who desperately need it–at least temporarily–to get back on their feet during a crisis.
This is especially true in these hard times when so many thousands of families who were living from paycheck to paycheck suddenly find themselves unemployed, or under-employed, and struggling to survive. Welfare can be a life-saver for a single mom who’s husband has dropped out of the picture for any number of reasons. For many such folks, welfare is the hand-[held]out that saves them from sinking. You could take the attitude that it’s their problem, but if you really think about it, it’s everyone’s problem, because we all deal with the unmeasurable costs to society of having thousands of families sinking deeper and deeper into poverty.
That being said, you CAN feed a child quite decently on $5-6 a day–which is $150-180 a month. No, you won’t be going out to restaurants, and no, you won’t be eating rib eye steaks. But, it is entirely possible to make a delicious, nutritious dinner for six people for $10-$12 or so, which is around $2 per person–less for toddlers. (Chicken, potatoes, and a veggie, for example.) For another $2-3, you can provide dessert for everyone, especially if you are willing to bake it yourself.
Lunches and breakfasts are even less costly per meal (a sandwich and fruit for lunch; for breakfast you can serve fruit with cereal or eggs and toast). Also, many children on welfare receive a free lunch, and even free breakfast, at school, although it’s generally less nutritious than a home-made meal–at least it is if there’s a conscientious cook in the house. (BTW, most families on welfare receive food stamps, too.)
So, once they’re fed, there is still at least a 60% portion of the money to put toward rent, shoes, clothes, shampoo, soap, toothpaste, laundry, etc. Buying a lot of things at yard sales and thrift shops (or Craigslist) is how many families survive, not to mention hand-me-downs. For food, toiletries, and other items that need to be bought new, you shop sales. You also learn to do without a lot of things, like going to the movie theater, or visiting places that charge high admission prices. Instead you do free things, such as using the library. You rent a video for $1 that the whole family can watch (or get it free from the library), and you make a huge bowl of popcorn at home for under $1.
Medical and dental care is an issue, of course, but if kids are on welfare, they are usually covered for those things, too. It may not be the best care, and there may be a long wait at times, but it’s better than nothing. For everything else, you budget and prioritize.
So, as I said, it’s no ride in the park. In fact, it’s a very difficult existence, and it wears you down. But, for the record, it IS entirely possible to raise children decently on $500 a month per child–and I don’t mean something out of a Dickens tale. It won’t be a cushy life, but it can be a decent one.
Hopefully, as they grow up, they will do well enough in school (or sports) to earn a college scholarship and move beyond their circumstances, because we fall really short as a society when it comes to education; which is ridiculously short-sighted, because it generally costs 2-3 times less for someone to attend a state university and later become a tax-payer than it does for the state to house them in prison–and yet education/scholarship budgets are constantly cut. (See table below, if you don’t believe me.)
Meanwhile, if we didn’t provide welfare, it would be the children who would suffer, and shame on anyone who thinks that is acceptable. Basically, we can pay for them when they are little, or pay a lot more for them later in too many ways to mention. Even if you don’t take into account the moral issues, we ALL pay the costs of poverty in higher taxes for more jails, more cops, more EMTs, more prosecutors, higher medical costs, higher insurance premiums, etc., etc., etc.
Cost analysis table of education vs prison–
It’s a table from 2002, but the ratios haven’t changed much–I just wanted to get the gist of it across.
If we are going to end welfare let’s begin with corporate welfare.