I'll bring up a point I made in another thread about socialism... because that's what we're talking about here... Socialism. Not in the "OMG OBAMA IS HITLER" sense. I don't have my tin foil hat on or anything. Just the textbook, non-emotionally charged definition of it.
We're not arguing complete reallocation of resources. We're arguing that the government, which gets taxes from us anyway, ought to keep the poorest of the poor from starving.
Socialism is cowardice at its worst. It's the belief that the problems we face are too big for us to handle, and it's a lack of faith in ones self and ones peers to fix things on their own. Thus they turn to the government, hand them a huge chunk of their paychecks, and say "Please, rescue us".
Well. I mean, if you're unemployed or working 2 jobs, and still can't get the money together to feed yourself, you need help. Instead of exacerbating the problem for the neighborhood by living off of them, you ask the government to help. Good thing the government takes your taxes so it can help you.
It's not cowardice to ask for help.
Contrary to that sentiment, it's absolutely at the core of everything I believe in that we CAN handle our own problems. Everyone needs to believe in something... don't you think? Something bigger than themselves... something that makes life mean something. For me, that belief is in humanity. I believe people, at their core, are good, kind, and generous. Of course there's the rare exception, but by and large, people in general WANT ... maybe even NEED to help out when they see someone suffering. It's just that people have never really been given that chance.
Sure you can overcome...but sometimes you need help. Working 2, 3 jobs doesn't always cut it.
So are you calling the entirety of people on Welfare lazy? That's rather insulting. In fact, I'd take it as a personal insult, considering my family lived on it until I was in the 5th grade. Was my single mother just too lazy or didn't believe in herself enough to get off of Medicare? WIC?
Take the Civil War... first REAL adversity we ever faced on a national scale in this country. That was also the time the government first levied an income tax... a 3% flat tax. Adversity strikes, out the window goes the Constitution. The Supreme Court stepped in and ruled that unconstitutional, as of course it was, so then we get the 16th amendment.
The Constitution went out the window because of a war?!?! Good thing there are provisions in the Constitution arguing that a President can do just that. Emergency War Powers and all.
Few years later... the next major adversity strikes. This time the Great Depression. The newly ratified Amendment gets its ass kicked by FDR (the worst president in the history of the country) as taxes on those that are still getting by skyrocket and and a series of entitlement programs are initiated... welfare, social security, etc.
Those "entitlement programs" as you called them were there to FEED PEOPLE. Are you against feeding the poor in your own god damn country?
Because of the cowardice of FDR and those of his day who would rather put off their problems on later generations, today those programs are complete messes.
Right. Because starving to death is such an easy problem. You can' work and therefore you can't buy food? Fuck you, we're not an entitlement program.
Yeah. That would have been great if FDR let half the nation starve.
Social Security is a disaster... there's a reason it's the "third rail of politics". Welfare... well, let me put it this way. A couple of months ago, I was in Food City behind a lady who bought a week's worth of groceries on food stamps. She left, I paid for my 6 pack of Sam Adams, and walked out. On the way to the car, I notice her loading her groceries into the trunk of a brand new Mustang with 30 day tags. One incident in a country of 300 million, I know... just an anecdote I thought I'd toss out there. And no, I'm not making this up to support any argument, hand to god I saw this.
I'll toss out an anecdote of my own.
My mother, being a single mother with 3 children, worked 2 jobs for as long as I knew. She barely kept us fed and clothed, but she did. Then she lost her job, and had to take Welfare for a year. She found a new job and got off of Welfare. Along with that, though, she also stayed on Medicare because she couldn't afford health insurance for her 2 children with horrendous allergies and asthma, one of them with a speech impediment that needed to be treated, and a third with eye problems that needed to be treated with surgery. She didn't once overuse the system.
..But, of course, let's use your anecdote. It makes so much more sense, and completely helps your argument.
Point being, it's time people in this country had a little self respect and fixed their own issues rather than expecting someone else to do it for them. It's lazy, it's cowardly, and it's wrong.
So my mother was a coward for feeding her children? Clothing them? She couldn't have done so without the money from the government, or the Food Stamps. You would have rather I, and my family, starve?