I assume you're talking about the working poor here. People struggling through low paying, humiliating McJobs with little or no chance of advancement making only enough to get by. Probably not as many as you think otherwise why arn't they right now? It's not that hard to get on disability and go on welfare. Most people have too much self respect to want to go on welfare. That's why you've got people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s working low paying, humiliating McJobs with little or no chance of advancement making only enough to get by.Gengar003 wrote: Second: Of the lower-income families/people you know, how many, if the government offered to take over paying for everything they are currently paying for, would accept the offer?
There's three kinds of poor.
There are those who simply don't see the value in working and will do only the bare minimum needed to get through on a day to day basis. Living in affluence may be better than living in poverty but to them it's not worth it if they have to work at it. There's sweet fuck all you can do about those people either because they'd just as soon steal what you've got rather than work for what you've got. Without any sort of social assistance that's exactly what those people will do. They'll steal from you. Then they'll be put in prison where they'll still be doing nothing and getting fed, clothed, and housed at a cost to tax payers far in excess of what it would have cost to keep them on welfare.
There's the insane. They live in a different reality and just can't function well enough in ours to get by. It's hard to hold down a steady job when your boss in an alien vampire overlord who wants to eat your brains. For the most part these people are the ones you find living drugged out on the streets. They're dangerous because in desperation they'll turn to crime and the harshness of thier life and the demons that haunt them can make them do things for which we would call them monsters.
Then there's the disenfranchised. These are people who have either fallen or simply never had the opportunities to stand up. These are the people we need the social saftey net for. People need to have access to opportunity. When people have access to opportunity they take it and they become productive. Education, training, financual assistance and real jobs, not McJobs that are meant for teenagers so they can save up for college and have a little fun money for the weekend. People need careers with opportunity for advancement. No nation is best served by having its populace living in poverty this is why you need to be able to get the disenfranchised back on their feet again. You need them to become producers and consumers and tax payers again because everyone benefits from the movement of money. That's why you need the social safety net.
Now you're going to catch some from the first catagory in that safetynet. There's not much to be done about that. Better than having them coming into your house with a gun while you sleep. It's not worth scrapping the system over. Why? It's simple. I'm two missed mortgage payments from me, my wife, and my kids living on the street. I'm three days without food for my family away from breaking into someone's house and taking their food. I'm two weeks without proper food and shelter for me and my family away from killing someone to get what I need to survive. That's why I'm willing to tolerate the occaisional freeloader in order to ensure the disenfranchised are caught by the safetynet. Knowing that if I fall I won't have to live like an animal in order to survive gives me the confidence and security to invest some of my money in the market istead of putting it under my matress. It gives me the security to take the occaisional vacation, or buy the occaisional luxury item. All those things redistribute cash through society which benefits everyone. In a capitalist society money has to constantly be in motion or the whole thing collapses like a deck of cards. People need to have confidence in the system because if they start squirreling away money instead of investing and spending the system is doomed. A strong social safety net gives people that security.
This is why socialized medicine is important. I need to know that if I get sick I won't become destitute. This is why socialized education is important. I need the knowledge and skills to be able to be a productive part of the system. This is why socialized welfare is important too so if I fall I won't fall to my destruction.
Most people don't want to be on welfare. If real opportunities to get off welfare and build a better life exists most people will take it. The few who won't are so small in number they're not worth worrying about.
The "tough love" "sink or swim" doctrine of the neo-conservatesives is pure bullshit. Completely dismantling the safetynet to "force" people to pull themselves up on their feet again is insanity. You cut tens of thousands of people off from their means of survival you won't get tends of thousands of people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. You'll get tens of thousands of desperate, starving people forming an army to come take what they need to survive.
It doesn't matter how well armed you are, a mob of unarmed, desperate people with nothing to lose will rip you to shreds.
[okay fine, it is a typo but I felt like making an attempt at humor]) it's a great idea.
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