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Matilda_Bennett
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datritle
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THANK YOU! I am on food stamps, and I work all the hours I can get at an Auntie Anne’s Pretzel shop. I have student loans, and other payments I must make, and I couldn’t afford to sustain myself without this valuable assistance. I am a seminary candidate and I am working very hard to pay off all my debts to enter seminary next fall. Thank you gov’t for your help!“This government funding that puts food in my kids mouth is just trapping me!” - Said no poor person ever
Honestly, have you ever ran this argument by someone that needs food stamps to eat?
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Elizabeth502
Guest
And I am also very grateful that you have been able to access food stamps. Lots of people can’t, depending on how the State regulates the food stamp allocation. (In my region, the income restrictions are so low that people must have virtually zero income. Some people still work and get food food stamps, though, through fraud. Those who choose not to commit fraud are deprived of what you have.) The point is, there remains corruption and tremendous inequity in the administering of food stamps. Second, no one should be discouraged from working in order to receive gov’t assistance. As I said somewhere else (probably on this thread), people should be rewarded for working, with assistance in various kinds, if that work does not sustain them.THANK YOU! I am on food stamps, and I work all the hours I can get at an Auntie Anne’s Pretzel shop. I have student loans, and other payments I must make, and I couldn’t afford to sustain myself without this valuable assistance. I am a seminary candidate and I am working very hard to pay off all my debts to enter seminary next fall. Thank you gov’t for your help!
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datritle
Guest
yes, i agree. it is a shame how difficult it can be for some to receive assistance. Hard work SHOULD be rewarded.
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nordskoven
Guest
I lifted a finger, I bleated to Cardinal Dolan and sent him an email urging him to use our Catholic resources to help each other, and gave apple and pear trees as a first suggestion. I asked him to consider urging parishes to plant three apple trees and three pear trees. Students could work at Saint Ann’s fruit delivery and pay their own way through college and not have crippling student loans. I’m a creative conservative. I’m not for government to switch on or switch off aid to the needy. I can’t cede that kind of control to “others.” C’mon. Wake up. We need to take control of our mutual destiny and work with and for each other, please God. Or as an option, give my non-profit 30%-50% of your salary for life and I’ll take care of you, I promise. Pleeeeze!
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TgirlMaria
Guest
Way to go Archbishop Dolan.
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TimeEntrance
Guest
Perhaps one of the greatest societies ever constructed was that of the Jesuit Reductions in Latin America. No one was homeless because everyone was given a house.Back before welfare existed they has soup kitchens to feed people. However they had stipulations put on those that wanted a meal. Able bodied men needed to ‘chop wood or themselves and a widdow’ in order to get fed (and get the widdow fed). Now it’s handouts without expectations…
But the Jesuits in general took very good care of the Amerindians whether in South America or North America. The white settlers envied the Amerindians under Jesuit tutelage because the Jesuits provided the Amerindians with lots of meat and plenty of gun powder.
Jesuit life itself is communal or more “socialist” than capitalist. The same with other Catholic religious orders.
One thing secular agnostics and atheists like to point out about “Catholic” nations is that their citizens are poor and uneducated. They compare this to the greater welfare states of Europe. Notice Catholics in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America try to get into European de-christinized states and the agnostics and atheists in Europe are not fleeing droves to run into Catholic nations.
The Bolsa Familia Program is a good thing (arguably more efficient than the U.S. TANF and former AFDC). And no one is going to convince me otherwise. And governments can do great things on a large scale. Notice Brazil and rest of Latin America has taken to listening to the Chinese Government largely over the U.S. Government and economies like Brazil have grown. Latin American right-wing governments (many oppressive and brutal) for many decades followed the advice and direction of Washington D.C. and the “trickle down” effect was not realized throughout Latin America with the possible exception of Chile (Pinochet sent Chileans to the U.S. to study the Chicago School of Economics).
My personal opinion is that their is no one economic school of thought or program that is a one size fits all kind of thing. Some nations might need to implemented more fiscally liberal programs and policies and other more fiscally conservative. All depending on the needs of the nation at the time.
Bolsa Familia Program: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsa_Fam%C3%ADlia
Bolsa Família (Portuguese pronunciation: ˈbowsɐ faˈmiliɐ], Family Allowance) is a social welfare program of the Brazilian government, part of the Fome Zero network of federal assistance programs. Bolsa Família provides financial aid to poor Brazilian families; if they have children, families must ensure that the infants attend school and are vaccinated. The program attempts to both reduce short-term poverty by direct cash transfers and fight long-term poverty by increasing human capital among the poor through conditional cash transfers. It also works to give free education to children who cannot afford to go to school to show the importance of education.[1]
The Economist described Bolsa Família as an “anti-poverty scheme invented in Latin America” (which) “is winning converts worldwide.”[2]
The program was a centerpiece of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s social policy, and is reputed to have played a role in his victory in the Brazilian presidential election, 2006.[3] Bolsa Familia is currently the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world, though the Mexican program Oportunidades was the first nation-wide program of this kind.[4]
The Bolsa Familia program has been mentioned as one factor contributing to the reduction of poverty in Brazil, which fell 27.7% during the first term in the Lula administration.[5] Recently the Center of Political Studies of the Getulio Vargas Foundation has published a study showing that there was a sharp reduction in the number of people in poverty in Brazil between 2003 and 2005.[6] Other factors include an improvement in the job market and real gains on the minimum wage.[5]
About 12 million Brazilian families receive funds from Bolsa Família,[7] which has been described as “the largest programme of its kind in the world.”[7]
By February 2011, 26% of the Brazilian population were covered by the program.[8]
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TimeEntrance
Guest
You went on to say:
But even $12,000 annually is not a lot of money. What do I mean by that? I mean that $1 million dollars (while a large amount to get in a single payment) is not a lot of money in the 21st Century United States especially over the course of a life time. But even for a ten year period one would have to spend $1 million dollars wisely.
So… what I’m saying is that $25,000 a year is not a lot of money. I aspire to eventually - knock on wood - earn in the six figures and obtain good mental and physical health. At minimum I’d like to make at least union scale in painting (building trades) if all else fails.
I don’t envy anyone that has lost their mind and collects $25,000 a year. And mental and physical health is really hard to put a price on in my opinion. I’d much rather make $10,000 a year scrubbing toilets than make $25 million a year confined to a wheel chair or be so mentally screwed up I have to be on powerful prescription drugs that literally give you physical tremors all day long (as some military vets I’ve seen in the V.A. Hospital).
Hey… you can get free room and board and food in a U.S. prison but I don’t want to go to prison.
So, economist speak of “negative externalities” pertaining to economic policies. Arguably, the U.S. welfare system especially under the former AFDC created generations of dependents (Britain and Europe has this problem to with their extensive welfare systems). But getting rid of these safety nets could result in far greater social and economic costs. The British think that our more Spartan policies in the U.S. is a significant cause to our great social pathologies and problems (e.g., gun violence; super-gangs).
I receive roughly $12,000 a year in non-service connected pension from the V.A. system (a large state welfare system even though many veterans like to deny it). Relative to the mean average of quality of life throughout the world among the poor I pretty much live like a king. The Kings and Queens of Europe during the Middle Ages never lived so good as I. The conveniences and comforts of 21st Century life in a developed nation.I work with mentally ill adults who supposedly, signed off by a doctor, are not able to work full time. I’ll tell you what, if the government came up with a program where any of these poeple who took and kept a full time job at McDonalds or Walmart, etc… they would literally be BEATING DOWN THE DOORS FOR THE OPPORTUNITY. Only a small minority would be too impaired to give it a try. And MANY would succeed. But since they are paid like 25K tax free, why bother?
But even $12,000 annually is not a lot of money. What do I mean by that? I mean that $1 million dollars (while a large amount to get in a single payment) is not a lot of money in the 21st Century United States especially over the course of a life time. But even for a ten year period one would have to spend $1 million dollars wisely.
So… what I’m saying is that $25,000 a year is not a lot of money. I aspire to eventually - knock on wood - earn in the six figures and obtain good mental and physical health. At minimum I’d like to make at least union scale in painting (building trades) if all else fails.
I don’t envy anyone that has lost their mind and collects $25,000 a year. And mental and physical health is really hard to put a price on in my opinion. I’d much rather make $10,000 a year scrubbing toilets than make $25 million a year confined to a wheel chair or be so mentally screwed up I have to be on powerful prescription drugs that literally give you physical tremors all day long (as some military vets I’ve seen in the V.A. Hospital).
Hey… you can get free room and board and food in a U.S. prison but I don’t want to go to prison.
So, economist speak of “negative externalities” pertaining to economic policies. Arguably, the U.S. welfare system especially under the former AFDC created generations of dependents (Britain and Europe has this problem to with their extensive welfare systems). But getting rid of these safety nets could result in far greater social and economic costs. The British think that our more Spartan policies in the U.S. is a significant cause to our great social pathologies and problems (e.g., gun violence; super-gangs).
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TimeEntrance
Guest
Addendum to post #44.
I want to also say I see a lot of mentally ill people in the public buses or I walk past them on the streets. Often they are talking to themselves or some imaginary person and they almost always are disheveled. Most of them appear to be homeless to me. I mean… walking around with a garbage bag usually signifies you’re in between lodging.
The greater part of the problem in the City of Milwaukee - and I would say throughout the United States - is that the governments inadequately take care of those suffering from significant mental illness.
And most the people I know - non-veterans - on disability making around something like $6,000 or $9,000 a year. A lot less than $25,000 a year.
And it’s actually very difficult to get on disability in the U.S.
For U.S. males it is particularly tough to be approved for any sort of disability or welfare with the exception of food stamps. This is why the vast majority of Black-American males of working age that are unemployed live with a girlfriend or with immediate or extended family or are couch surfing or homeless. The idea most these unemployed males are being provided free government housing and free money from the state is as close to reality as saying the United States has a major colony on planet Mars. Pure, utter, fiction.
In fact… with my estimated $12,000 annually I do better than 99% of unemployed Black-American males in the City of Milwaukee. More than one black male I know envies me.
And among those black males and black females that are employed in Milwaukee most of them probably earn somewhere between $10,000 to $13,000 a year.
*******The mean average of annual earnings is a bit of a deceptive statistical figure if one is not aware of what that mathematical language is actually saying.
The median average can help bring a little more clarity.
But the mode average might be the more informative*
I want to also say I see a lot of mentally ill people in the public buses or I walk past them on the streets. Often they are talking to themselves or some imaginary person and they almost always are disheveled. Most of them appear to be homeless to me. I mean… walking around with a garbage bag usually signifies you’re in between lodging.
The greater part of the problem in the City of Milwaukee - and I would say throughout the United States - is that the governments inadequately take care of those suffering from significant mental illness.
And most the people I know - non-veterans - on disability making around something like $6,000 or $9,000 a year. A lot less than $25,000 a year.
And it’s actually very difficult to get on disability in the U.S.
For U.S. males it is particularly tough to be approved for any sort of disability or welfare with the exception of food stamps. This is why the vast majority of Black-American males of working age that are unemployed live with a girlfriend or with immediate or extended family or are couch surfing or homeless. The idea most these unemployed males are being provided free government housing and free money from the state is as close to reality as saying the United States has a major colony on planet Mars. Pure, utter, fiction.
In fact… with my estimated $12,000 annually I do better than 99% of unemployed Black-American males in the City of Milwaukee. More than one black male I know envies me.
And among those black males and black females that are employed in Milwaukee most of them probably earn somewhere between $10,000 to $13,000 a year.
*******The mean average of annual earnings is a bit of a deceptive statistical figure if one is not aware of what that mathematical language is actually saying.
The median average can help bring a little more clarity.
But the mode average might be the more informative*
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