Hurricane Katrina
dizzy:
Quote from: SimsHost on 2005 September 25, 22:11:21
I'm talking about reducing the level of socialism in the welfare industry tremendously.
"Welfare industry"? My goodness. Now I have heard everything. :P
SimsHost:
Quote from: Judecat on 2005 September 25, 20:28:12
Sim host -- is that liberal leave like the state of Md -- if you have vacation time you can use it, if not then you'd better show up.
I think it means that you can take leave if you're a liberal. That's only half good news for me because I'm only a liberal on odd-numbered days. On even-numbered days I wonder why the USA needs a socialized space program! ;D
Hmm... today is an odd-numbered day. Perhaps that's why I'm having such difficulty presenting a cogent conservative argument for my idea about a no-fault welfare program. Ask me about it tomorrow. For today, let's just blame the whole thing on global warming.
BTW, my name is Greg. (Note the four-letter Anglo-Saxon monosyllable in my sig.) SimsHost is just a hobby, one of my many crimes against normalcy.
SimsHost:
Quote from: dizzy-two on 2005 September 25, 22:19:04
Quote from: SimsHost on 2005 September 25, 22:11:21
I'm talking about reducing the level of socialism in the welfare industry tremendously.
"Welfare industry"? My goodness. Now I have heard everything. :P
Hey, welfare is big business, especially in the areas of health care and housing! Never doubt the ability of people to think of ways to make a profit off of anything that the government spends money on; and the Department of Health and Human Services gets the lion's share of the federal budget.
witch:
Quote from: SimsHost on 2005 September 25, 19:29:33
By eliminating the investigation of potential welfare cheating, we would eliminate the majority of the cost for delivering money to the people.
I haven't seen any recent studies on welfare fraud, but having spent 15 years in the welfare system here as a beneficiary, I saw many in the same position as myself of course. Some people were yes, just bone idle and content to pop out another child or two to stay on the benefit, but these were amongst a small minority. The vast majority of people I encountered were concerned parents and decent people, many were only on a benefit for a few months, most worked a parttime job in addition to caring for young children, even though the costs associated with working could be high.
I suspect that for the amount of actual welfare fraud, the costs of checking and investigating would far outweigh any monetary gains. And when a prosecution is successful, how do you get blood out of a stone?
The prime way of defrauding here would be a man with a job, living with a woman receiving a benefit for being home with children. Considering that in the 80's and 90's the capitalists drove our economy into a low wage one, it is not viable for many families in the lower socio-economic bracket to subsist on one income. Having to cheat all adds to the stigma and shame of being a beneficiary of course.
Judecat:
But after been on the other side of the desk for 18 years, I am of the opinion that people like you are more rare than you might like to think. I've even seem it in my ex's family. Ex hubby grew up poor, mom's on welfare, got 6 kids from 4 different men, but Ex manages to get himself a well paying job as a longshoreman. So does he get a house or condo for his mom and little sister to live in (the other kids were away from home by then). Heck no, he moves into the projects with her, and gives her half his pay under the table. One of the reasons he is my ex is that I turned them in. Too many people grow up on welfare think they or their family are "entitled" to it. If my older sis had not seen fit, or been able to take care of mom when we got grown, then I would surely not have run off to be a bum like I did. That's basically what I ment that you should take care of your own family.
And again -- I don't trust the government with money. For instance -- do you know what State Governments are doing, and being allowed to do with the tobacco settlement money-- that they sued to force the tobacco companies to pay for medical care for smokers -- The Feds handed out the money with no stipulations of what it was to be used for, so instead of earmarking it for the stated purpose -- to keep the state from having to subsidize my emphesema -- the treated it like a windfall, lotto win. We got new roads, farms got bought so we could build new state offices in the western part of the state. The governer built a new fence around the state house to keep his dog from getting loose, oh yes, and tax breaks for people to build ugly oversized hotels. The Department of Health and Mental Hygene got no one penny of the money -- not for Medical care, research or even anti smoking ads. All this in a state that was so far in the red that they had cancelled all cost of living , seniority or merit raises for state employees, and he have had a 20 year hireing freeze.
If I didn't have elderly family members to care for, I think I'd live in a bunker like JM. I'm a layed off State employee who truely beleives that we need less government, and not more.
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