PO'ed Veteran

[sweettractors]

I think he was meaning that only have of the us citizens work the others goof off ..(not work)

That is about right. What I actually meant to say was in my area, more than half the people don't work and are not looking for a job. They are on the Government Dole in one way or the other. Not counting Social security, of course. Ken Sweet

 

[keegs]

That is about right. What I actually meant to say was in my area, more than half the people don't work and are not looking for a job. They are on the Government Dole in one way or the other. Not counting Social security, of course. Ken Sweet

Ken,

I think you made this up.

 

[The Haymaker]

Ken,

I think you made this up.

:mur:

 

[gauthier]

Well,I'm mostly a happy veteran,,sometimes not,but,,,,

Never tried for a lowes discount,heard that was just for the privledged few?,[retired,active]??

 

[sweettractors]

Ken,

I think you made this up.

Just to give you a quick example, I have 5 rentals and all 5 are on the Government Dole. I can' make this stuff up. Ken Sweet

 

[Loren49]

The following report differs from the view most of us have. Its interesting and may give you something to think about.

Myth: The poor receive the most welfare.

Fact: Corporations receive the most welfare.



Summary

Entitlement spending on households is surprisingly "flat" in the U.S. -- the spending is distributed proportionately among the various income groups. However, federal spending tilts in favor of the rich when you add corporate welfare to the mix. And this pro-wealthy favoritism becomes more pronounced when you consider who is paying for it: over the last few decades, the tax rates for the rich have sharply fallen, both in personal income and corporate taxes.


Here is the full report with sources.
The poor receive the most welfare

Its easy to look down on the poor when we see a few who seem to abuse the system. I believe that we have much more control over politicians than we do over corporations. Try firing as greedy CEO?? We'll have much more responce in November.

Loren

 

[/pine]

...Its easy to look down on the poor when we see a few who seem to abuse the system...

I do not begrudge anyone that needs help or assistance...but it irks the daylights out of me to be in line at the grocery store and the person in front of me is buying expensive cuts of meat and seafood and pays with gov. (food stamp) card...then procede over to the other counter and use cash to buy tobacco items and lottery tickets...

and in the same respect...I think any family (both spouses) recieving welfare, food stamps etc...should be requird to take urine (drug screening) tests...the same as most of the gainfully employed folks who's taxes are subsidizing said welfare and food stamps...have to do to keep their jobs...

 

[sweettractors]

The following report differs from the view most of us have. Its interesting and may give you something to think about.

Myth: The poor receive the most welfare.

Fact: Corporations receive the most welfare.



Summary

Entitlement spending on households is surprisingly "flat" in the U.S. -- the spending is distributed proportionately among the various income groups. However, federal spending tilts in favor of the rich when you add corporate welfare to the mix. And this pro-wealthy favoritism becomes more pronounced when you consider who is paying for it: over the last few decades, the tax rates for the rich have sharply fallen, both in personal income and corporate taxes.


Here is the full report with sources.
The poor receive the most welfare

Its easy to look down on the poor when we see a few who seem to abuse the system. I believe that we have much more control over politicians than we do over corporations. Try firing as greedy CEO?? We'll have much more responce in November.

Loren

At least the cooperations, hire people and the others are takers not giving back anything to socity. You could not pay them $20 per hour to weedeat or mow a yard. Typical excuses: Too Hot, Too Cold, Mess up my government check, if someone turns me in for working, I will lose my disability check and on and on. Ken Sweet

 

[keegs]

Just to give you a quick example, I have 5 rentals and all 5 are on the Government Dole. I can' make this stuff up. Ken Sweet

If someone living in one of two houses on your block received food stamps then I'll concede you're correct that half the families in "your area" receive some form of government assistance.

I'll say one more thing Ken, for all their talk about big government spending, over the years, Mitch McConnel and Jim Bunning have managed to bring home the federal bacon to their beloved Kentuckians.

 

[keegs]

I do not begrudge anyone that needs help or assistance...but it irks the daylights out of me to be in line at the grocery store and the person in front of me is buying expensive cuts of meat and seafood and pays with gov. (food stamp) card...then procede over to the other counter and use cash to buy tobacco items and lottery tickets...

and in the same respect...I think any family (both spouses) recieving welfare, food stamps etc...should be requird to take urine (drug screening) tests...the same as most of the gainfully employed folks who's taxes are subsidizing said welfare and food stamps...have to do to keep their jobs...

I don't doubt that there are deadbeats in the system but the average food stamp recipiant receives $3. a day.

FSP benefits for households without children are limited to three months over a three year period and there are work requirments as well.

The majority of any state budget goes to funding education and healthcare.

 

[Loren49]

I feel that the needy should be given the food staples with a small amount of discretionary choices. Food Stamps come with many restrictions but still allow lots of junk food. Even with staples distributed there would be some who trade or sell them for cash.
Note that most all welfare money distributed in a community is spent there and is then spent again by the businesses. Corporate profits are not spent in the local community - many times it goes overseas or just pads someones wealth. They just reap the tax dollar handouts, lobby congress to affect the laws, and reap the profits. Sweettractors - your analysis is an oversimplification - have you actually offered an able bodied welfare recipient $20/hr and had them refuse? I bet the corporate CEO who laid of 300 workers to justify their $2.3 million dollar bonus would not work for $20/ hr either.
Many welfare recipients have serious mental and/or physical issues that keep them out of the work force. There are a good number who are on welfare for a short time and are able to get back on their feet. The option of a large group of hungry, angry people is not good - look at places where that has happened (lots of big fences around the homes of the wealthy in Haiti - and Florida )

A bit of reality in this article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909803-6,00.html

"There are enough who fit each aspect of the composite to unfairly tar all the needy, but the reality of poverty in the U.S. is not what myth would have it. A majority of the welfare recipients in the country are white (58%), and thousands of them—many from high paying jobs, especially in engineering—a�re now discovering the shock of poverty for the first time. Forty-two percent are nonwhite, more than three times their proportion of the population is testimony to the dislocation and discrimination in American society."........"But the fact is that chicanery accounts for a very small part of welfare's cost. The last HEW study estimates that only four out of every 1,000 of those on welfare actually cheat."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,909803-6,00.html#ixzz12hdoREWz


"everybody needs someone to look down on"
Loren

 

[sweettractors]

I have tried for years to get these people to help and they will not work for any amount of money because of the reasons I stated above. I can get migrant workers out the ya-zoo and they are hard workers. They are not on the government dole, heck, the government don't even know they are here. I grew up ion the fifties and sixties and when a family fell on hard times, the Church's, Neighbors and family members supported them until they could get back on their feet. I know I am in the minority here, but, I liked the old fashioned way of helping a lot better. My Uncle died in 1959 and left a wife and 5 kids on a unpaid for farm. We all helped until they recovered and my Aunt lived to be 94 and the 5 Kids all turned out fine and are contributing members of society today. Ken Sweet

 

[brin]

I have tried for years to get these people to help and they will not work for any amount of money because of the reasons I stated above. I can get migrant workers out the ya-zoo and they are hard workers. They are not on the government dole, heck, the government don't even know they are here. I grew up ion the fifties and sixties and when a family fell on hard times, the Church's, Neighbors and family members supported them until they could get back on their feet. I know I am in the minority here, but, I liked the old fashioned way of helping a lot better. My Uncle died in 1959 and left a wife and 5 kids on a unpaid for farm. We all helped until they recovered and my Aunt lived to be 94 and the 5 Kids all turned out fine and are contributing members of society today. Ken Sweet

I agree with you Ken...I grew up in the Fifties and Sixties as well and folks did take care of other folks back then when they fell on hard times, the government wasn't needed and would not be needed now had " The great society " not created so many welfare dependent folks..

 

[jbooth]

I agree with you Ken...I grew up in the Fifties and Sixties as well and folks did take care of other folks back then when they fell on hard times, the government wasn't needed and would not be needed now had " The great society " not created so many welfare dependent folks..

I grew up in the same time frame. My small rural town took care of it's own. Unfortunately I had to move to an urban area for work and would hate to try my luck at being poor/hungry here. One of the problems is that society has bunched the poor less fortunate (maybe lazy I don't know) people in one area and there are no middle class or rich people nearby to help. It's not hard being poor, if everybody around you is poor. That's all good until a rich SOB moves nearby to give you grand ideas. I don't believe the poor people have changed as much as the rich people who are willing to give a helping hand have disappeared. What has really changed is the standard of living. Not bad giving a person something to eat, but it's a different story furnishing cable TV and a $10,000 car and $3.00 a gallon gas for that car.

 

[Sigarms]

I agree with you Ken...I grew up in the Fifties and Sixties as well and folks did take care of other folks back then when they fell on hard times, the government wasn't needed and would not be needed now had " The great society " not created so many welfare dependent folks..

I have no doubt that throughout the history of man, people in their middle age complained about the current society they live in and wished that "things were they way they were when they grew up".

I even bet people in their middle age years in the 50's and 60's made the comment that things were better in the 20's and 30's whey they grew up LOL

As for laws, and why laws get enacted, watching this video may make you realize why...

YouTube - San Francisco 1905 - 1906 (short form)

 

[MossRoad]

I have no doubt that throughout the history of man, people in their middle age complained about the current society they live in and wished that "things were they way they were when they grew up".

I even bet people in their middle age years in the 50's and 60's made the comment that things were better in the 20's and 30's whey they grew up LOL

Uh, no! That was the depression. My dad and mom always said things were much better in the 50's and 60's than they were in the 20's and 30's.

 

[Loren49]

I agree completely with the concept of helping friends and neighbors. I believe that was the way it was in the 1930s but with no social programs there was suffering, hunger, and homelessness with no place to turn. Most of us did not live in that time and I believe have no clue about how it was when the bank failed, the life savings were gone, the crops failed and people were hungry. Free market did not solve that for years.
The following site shows that there were ten years of unemployment rates over 10% (high of about 25%). How did it work by letting many things fail - how many lives were shattered. Was it really better without a social safety net? No social security, medicare, medicade, unemployment insurance, etc. and thousands of people losing their life savings as hundreds of banks failed. How did total free market work? Look at unemployment in the mid 80s (near 10%)- thought they were the good old days.

Unemployment 1930's vs Today

We've got it pretty good.

Loren

 

[Sigarms]

Uh, no! That was the depression. My dad and mom always said things were much better in the 50's and 60's than they were in the 20's and 30's

Curious as to how old your parents are? My dad is pushing towards 80 and he really doesn't remember the depression.

I do however remember living with my grandmother when my father was overseas serving in the military fighting in a "conflict" (my father made a great life for himself being a "career man" in the military). Both sets of my grandparents came over off a boat after 1900, and I never knew my grandfathers. I actually had three being that my one grandmother (who I lived with) remarried, she having six children, her "new" husband having five children as well, having another child between them. I never met any of my grandfathers being that they all died an early death (two in the coal mines, one due to a lumbering accident).

I mention my grandmother who I knew because

We've got it pretty good

and that is EXACTLY what my grandmother use to tell me all the time.

I also remember her telling me that coming off a boat, living in America (even during the depression) was "easy" to what she was use to in her native land.

To some extent, I have no doubt that each new generation is spoiled compared to the previous generation. Numerous reasons, one being technology.

The way I have it figured, the human spirit, for better or worse, is alive in all future generations to come, even after we're all long gone.