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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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 Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 4:46 pm Post subject: Americans blame 'government welfare' for persistent poverty |
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Two decades after President Bill Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it," Americans blame government handouts for persistent poverty in the United States more than any other single factor...
http://inplainsight.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/06/18802216-many-americans-blame-government-welfare-for-persistent-poverty-poll-finds?lite
Awesome. I agree.
The U.S. government spent $80 billion on the food stamp program last year. One in seven Americans now get free food. It's ridiculous. Poor people in the U.S. are generally overweight and obese. They need less food, not more.
I think everyone should have to work for their money (and be smart enough to save for emergencies). There shouldn't be unemployment benefits, food stamps, government funded free (or heavily subsidized) housing, welfare cash payments for having children as a poor person, etc. If those people had to come up with the money themselves, suddenly they would be able to find and have a job (and they would stop having so many kids). |
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Nolos
Joined: 23 Oct 2011
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Absolutely they should work for their FREE money. Let them clean the sewers, wash windows, cut lawns, clear trash along the freeways -- ANYTHING -- than being able to just sit around and "act" like they are "looking" for work. |
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actionjackson
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Location: Any place I'm at
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:20 pm Post subject: Re: Americans blame 'government welfare' for persistent pove |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| [i]The U.S. government spent $80 billion on the food stamp program last year. One in seven Americans now get free food. It's ridiculous. Poor people in the U.S. are generally overweight and obese. They need less food, not more. |
Wow, really? I can't tell if you really think this or just trying to get a reaction out of people. Perhaps this could have something to do with it:
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Professor and obesity researcher, Dr. Adam Drewnowski set out to determine why income is the most reliable predictor of obesity in the U.S. To do this, he took a hypothetical dollar to the grocery store. His goal was to purchase as many calories as possible per dollar.
What he found is that he could buy well over 1,000 calories of cookies or potato chips. But his dollar would only buy 250 calories of carrots. He could buy almost 900 calories of soda� but only 170 calories of orange juice.
If you are poor and hungry, you are obviously going to buy the cheapest calories you can find. And in today�s world, the cheapest calories come from junk foods � whether those foods are found at the grocery store, the gas station, or in the fast food restaurant, conveniently located just down the street.
The primary reason that lower-income people are more overweight is because the unhealthiest and most fattening foods are the cheapest. If you were broke and had just three dollars to spend on food today, would you buy a head of broccoli or a Super Value Meal with French fries, a cheeseburger and a Coke? |
http://institutefornaturalhealing.com/2011/04/the-economics-of-obesity-why-are-poor-people-fat/
Oh, and read the article to find out what those foods are being made from and how the government is subsidizing those crops.
I do recognize that there are people who are taking advantage of the situation. I used to live next door to people who were sponging off of government assistance who looked perfectly capable of holding down a job. There are also other people, such as my mother, who worked full time at a job that had full benefits, yet still didn't make enough money to feed her 3 children. I know from experience that food stamps can be a wonderful thing to have. |
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Deja
Joined: 18 Mar 2011
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:27 pm Post subject: |
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Poor welfare Scandinavians drowning in poverty 
Oh wait! |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:36 pm Post subject: Re: Americans blame 'government welfare' for persistent pove |
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| actionjackson wrote: |
| World Traveler wrote: |
| The U.S. government spent $80 billion on the food stamp program last year. One in seven Americans now get free food. It's ridiculous. Poor people in the U.S. are generally overweight and obese. They need less food, not more. |
Wow, really? I can't tell if you really think this or just trying to get a reaction out of people. |
No, I sincerely believe it (that the government giving no strings attached money to poor people is a bad idea).
And I will tell you a personal story. My family was briefly on food stamps. I still think it is wrong though. If there were no food stamps, would I have starved? No, what would have happened is my parents would have had to have gone to a church food pantry to get food. And they probably would have felt embarassed about that, which would have caused them to work harder to find more work and/or better paying work. That would have probably benefited me (and them) more in the long run. |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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Can not compare Scandanavia with the U.S. ,
I think the housing was the worst problem as far as welfare.
Grouping people who are already in despair and probably angry about their living situation with others of the same type produces a cauldron of hopelessness and anger.
The housing projects were almost impossible to escape. Just really reallya bad idea. in the beginning of the 'new Deal" they were great theyoffered people a step up. Now they are what is holding many people back.
I dont think it is ever a good idea to be a slave of the state. To owe your existence to the whims of politics and bureaucrats is demeaning and dangerous. |
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Zackback
Joined: 05 Nov 2010
Location: Kyungbuk
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:48 pm Post subject: |
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They are generally overweight and obese because they can't afford good healthy food. It is too expensive. So what do they do? $1 happy meals, etc.
Government handouts to corporations is far more disgusting. |
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World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
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bmaw01
Joined: 13 May 2013
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Zackback wrote: |
They are generally overweight and obese because they can't afford good healthy food. It is too expensive. So what do they do? $1 happy meals, etc.
Government handouts to corporations is far more disgusting. |
Actually a study was done a few years ago that found that eating healthy was less expensive then eating unhealthy foods. How much does it cost to buy fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, and poultry? It's not that expensive.
People eat unhealthy because it's the easiest thing to do. It's much easier to gorge on chips, soda, and pizza. Eating healthy takes discipline, and people who eat healthier are more likely to exercise. Today, poor people have awful willpower and discipline.
Compare the poor today to the poor a few generations ago. You will find that government handouts has had a serious negative impact on inner city communities. People aren't going to want to do better if they're given free food and housing. What has happened? People complain about life, and they have the "it's not my fault" mentality. Compare this mentality to the people who came to America 100 years ago. They didn't complain. They came to America for a better life. There were no government handouts. You worked or you starved to death. They were poor but they had pride, and most wanted to achieve the American dream.
I know people are going to say that it's a black and white issue. In the past, blacks were treated unfairly. Their chances of succeeding in a white America was not good. But at least they had pride, courage, and so on. Now? It's a different situation. Maybe it was the drugs. I do know that we now have a black president. They can't use the skin color excuse anymore.
Last edited by bmaw01 on Sat Jun 08, 2013 7:10 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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radcon
Joined: 23 May 2011
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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The young gentlemen in those videos are just misunderstood youths without ample education and employment opportunities. |
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joelove
Joined: 12 May 2011
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
The United States is the richest country in the history of civilization. Scandanavia is not. |
Not in a per capita basis it's not. Nor on a regional basis; huge tracts of America (even entire states) are piss poor, and wealth is tightly concentrated.
| World Traveler wrote: |
| I think the U.S. government should discourage, not encourage poor people to have children. (If the government took away benefits, suddenly the birth rate within that population would drop.) |
Ceasing the limited downward redistribution of wealth that exists in America would exacerbate its economic problems. This is something the average middle classer does not understand, and resultingly, the middle class is playing a role in its own decline. The American middle class presents a real challenge to the democratic ideal; if a reasonably well-educated population with all of its needs and many of its wants being met cannot avoid politically supporting it's own systematic undermining, maybe such forms of governance simply cannot work in the long term. |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 8:51 pm Post subject: |
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| World Traveler wrote: |
| Deja wrote: |
Poor welfare Scandinavians drowning in poverty
Oh wait! |
The United States is the richest country in the history of civilization. Scandanavia is not. |
Norway is, per person, one of the richest countries in the world. The only states that are richer are city states like Singapore and Luxemburg. They have one of the most extensive social benefits systems in the world, where citizens actually receive a high return on investment, and the wealth isn't so tightly concentrated in so few hands.
You are blaming the victims of our economic system, rather than looking at the people who benefit from, protect, and create the system. Corporate welfare, subsidies, and the like are exponentially more harmful to our economy than food stamps. They do look much better than the poor in their suits, and they are harder to look down on, and the public does love it's low hanging fruit. |
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young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Nolos wrote: |
| Absolutely they should work for their FREE money. Let them clean the sewers, wash windows, cut lawns, clear trash along the freeways -- ANYTHING -- than being able to just sit around and "act" like they are "looking" for work. |
Yeah if you're willing to wash windows and clear trash for money just arrive at Job Pro's at 5:00 in the morning and around 8:00 in the morning you might be clearing trash at someone's house or worse for $7.50 an hour and being treated like crap! Or then again you might not get anything that day. Also they might be able to hook you up with a sign holding job. That's the nature of things for people that are presently unemployable and probably receiving some kind of assistance. |
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rollo
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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Norway has an ocean of oil. all of those social benefits are paid from petro dollars, not taxes not industry, oil.
Compare it to Kuwait or Brunei but it is really silly to compare it to other countries.
The U.s. is by far the richest big country. A population of 318 million people, so compare it with other countries of similar populations. |
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