Quote:
Originally Posted by invisible777
Here's one example
I'd rather see my tax money only go to support families who are responsible. I don't want to buy food stamps and govt services for the idiots out there who buy shit instead of food when they are being supported by govt programs.
Case in point - I worked at a grocery store for 3 years in high school, I saw it every day. Food stamps person/family comes into line with a couple of items of food, uses the food stamps, then buys $100 worth of shit like DVDs and toys. People like this are either a) irresponsible idiots, or b) gaming the system, and either way I do not want to support them, but we all do.
|
I hear you, but for every family like that there's another one struggling and trying to pull itself out of the gutter. I have seen both kinds, and far, far too many of the latter.
The fact that we are able to use the internet to debate this at all is a perfect example of a privilege that most poorer people don't have, and it's just one of the numerous ways that the class you're born into makes it harder to find and keep a job.
What the conservatives have done within the past decade is make it pointless to claim bankruptcy in many cases because most families now have to pay off all of the debt their creditors heaped on them with usurous interest rates (2005, I believe), spent billions on a fucking useless and racist war (because all arabs are apparently terrorists, even if they hate each other), voted down a bill that would have allowed women a decent shot at discovering and challenging pay discrimination (this past week), lowered air quality standards so that the polluters 30 miles away exacerbate our health problems...I could go on.
If I wanted to, I could use my medical condition to go on welfare, but I'd rather work. As a consequence, I pay nearly $6K a year in health care costs, health care that should be a right of every American citizen like it is of every Canadian citizen, and every British citizen, and every French citizen, etc. ad nauseam. Single-payer systems aren't perfect, but they're much, much better for everyone than the bastard HMOs, where the employees are paid to DENY benefits. It's the most fucked up thing ever. By 2050, health care costs will take up 37% of our gross domestic product.
But don't worry; at the rate we cut benefits and give out tax breaks, our economy will be in the gutter long before that happens.
To summarize:
I'd rather just help everyone and beat up the frauds when I catch them.