Compared to most of the world, $5 a day is wealthy. Most of the poor in this country own a car, they have a tv, central air and heat, clothes, etc. It might not be luxury to you, but it is to most of the world.
Separate government welfare programs for specific things, like food or housing, are stupid. Welfare should be a cash only program and let the person receiving the welfare decide what they want to spend it on.
Of course our welfare system needs an overhaul but it will never happen. As soon as someone talks about reforming welfare they are labeled as a greedy person who hates poor people and wants them to die in the streets.
Entitlement reform needs to happen soon also. Entitlements are going to grow very quickly here soon. They are going to be our downfall. But that will never happen either because as soon as someone talks about reforming entitlements they are labeled as a greedy person who hates old people, retirees, and workers and wants them to die in the streets.
The trouble is when most people say “reform” they mean “let’s kick a bunch of people off welfare.” And I don’t think that’s the solution. From my own experiences, the system is not terribly good at helping out people who would like to be off welfare. People like me who could probably have been kept working with more timely intervention are instead left to wait until things are truly desperate and we’re deep in debt before help is available. Those who would like to seek an education to get a better job, or to get a job that’s compatible with a disability or other issue, aren’t given any help or support. In fact in many states they may be disqualified for doing so. Asset limits can be very low, lower than what someone might need to purchase a vehicle (in many regions a necessity for a job) or to move to somewhere that has more available work. For the very poor, homeless shelters may have limited hours or quickly running out space that disadvantages those with shiftwork or jobs that keep them into the evening.
Basically, I think we need to not focus so much on the idea of people cheating the system. What I’d like to see is thoughts about how people end up on welfare and what the best way to get them off is, and focus on that. So in my case, a more timely aid with medical care could very easily have kept me from being unemployed at all - but the insurance system I had left me with crippling copays and avoiding treatment I couldn’t afford and often couldn’t effectively get to. The lack of treatment meant worse health until I
had to quit - which was when I actually started qualifying for aid. I have to watch that I don’t make too much so I end up off medicaid still.
What do you mean by a “dead end” job? Again, education is costly because of government, plain and simple. The same people who want to raise the minimum wage. Please, watch Good Intentions by Walter Williams.
That is all speculation. Do you have any proof that we are a “two-track” society where only the wealthy have opportunity and the poor are screwed?
If anything, government policy is responsible for the gap between the rich and the poor. It is responsible for the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. And people want the government to get more involved? Please.
A dead end job is a job which has little room for advancement and doesn’t build up desirable skills. Most retail type jobs are of this sort - there’s no major skills learned and only a small minority can make it up to a management position. And even then often managers above low levels are hired from outside the company rather than from skills developed while working.
And I have some evidence in that we tend to see generational poverty. The children of the poor are more likely to be poor, to not get an education and to spend more time working minimum-wage jobs. There’s a concern that loss of a minimum wage would increase those problems because jobs would pay minimally for people to survive. If there’s lots of unskilled labor and you can get someone to work for just enough to survive, why not do so? And if everyone who uses unskilled labor pays that little, well, people will still take those jobs.
It’s kind of like a problem you see with disasters now. Sudden demand means merchants can jack up prices for necessities. Many will even though it means a lot of people can’t afford to buy food and frequently those with money will buy and hoard more than they need.
As far as education, honestly before the government got involved a college education was only for the wealthy few. Now many jobs are demanding it - and the increased specialization of society and loss of the apprenticeship system means it’s necessary. So I doubt cutting the government out will lower prices to the point where the vast majority of people who need a degree to get a better paying job can get one.
(and I don’t really have good enough stuff around here to watch things easily)
