American males historically have been the mongrels of the world. Extremely diverse background but tougher than nails. Now they're all about getting manicures and matching socks. They probably even change their underwear every day.
I disagree. I think there's a pretty decent middle ground between the socialist idea of "Here, have a bunch of fish" and the right-wing extreme of "Get your own fucking pole, and this is my pond anyway!" And I think there's a certain amount of enlightened self interest at work as well...you can only say "Let them eat cake!" for so long before the angry mob storms the Bastille. Societies with very large, very poor lower classes tend to be very unstable ones.
Sadly, the last great hope for the Red Blooded American Male probably comes down to Lt. Mewa and Uncle Albert. And one of them is afraid of direct deposit.
See, Ted, stuff like this is exactly why some people around here think you are a creepy fuck. So no more whining about being a 'second-class poster' please.
No it's not. It's the difference between helping someone up who's fallen down in the street, or picking them up and carrying them everywhere. You may not like either one, but it's not the same fucking thing.
Reality differs from how some choose to perceive it. Nothing I said in support of my assertion is untrue.
I think I've mentioned before: deadbeat brother-in-law walked out on eldest sis-in-law when youngest niece had just been released from special care. State could have said, 'tough luck, starve in the gutter'. Instead, it said, 'Oh, terrible, here's a house, and here's the money for food, good luck in getting back on your feet.' Fast forward 25 years. All three daughters are mothers and taxpayers in the process of buying their own homes. Their mother is a taxpayer in the process of buying her own home. In taxes they've repaid the support they got several dozen times over. There is a world of difference between a hand-out and a hand-up.
I am in a similar situation. I am receiving public aid, but I am going to school for something that will one day pay very, very well. I will more than repay what the government has spent on me within the first few years. Not only that, but the taxes I will pay in my life will outstrip what I would have paid the government by more than 5 times had I stayed in retail sales, or gone back to waiting tables. UA... people should be held accountable for the help they receive, but the world is not the black and white place you see it as... you try and fit everything into some kind of generic, oversimplified mold that can hold up your "I don't care" facade. The fact is, the help that taxpayers are giving me is a good investment. It makes sense, especially when you look at the long term.
As a Christian and a realist, I understand that we live in a world where bad things happen. My preferred route is for the community to help a person who needs it - voluntarily. Kind of like this group and Shep, for instance. "hand up vs. hand out" is too simplistic as most slogans are.
And as a Christian, aren't you sorta called by Jesus to help your neighbors in your community? And as an atheist and a realist, I agree - it's best if people give and recieve help within their community, with the intervention of some fat-off, impersonal, red-tape infested govenrment. But we don't all live in small, tight-knit communities anymore. For better or worse.
It takes more than a change of phrasing to make them different. How many welfare recipients are "learning to fish," rather than milking it as much as they can for as long as they can while barely bothering to maintain the appearance of trying to eliminate their need for it? OK. So if you can hold up that as justification, anyone who fails to meet those requirements can be allowed to dry up and die alone, right? After a set interval, I can not only cut off the aid, but penalize anyone who hadn't successfully used it to turn their life around and become contributing taxpayers? Hell, if, as you imply, I can expect to see that "investment" pay off with interest, why not make it official and handle it like a loan? Set terms, set intervals, take what you need but you will pay back every bit of it? That, or you're both cherry-picking examples that aren't really representative of the entire subject, knowing full well that this investment usually costs more than it ever pays back, and carries the added benefit of encouraging people to underacheive by rewarding it with something desirable and effortless.
Yes. I am. Jesus seemed to be partial to the downtrodden. He was pretty harsh with those who "had it all together". I don't always live up to the ideal and I'm certainly not perfect. I agree that it's hard to help people on the other end of the state, much less the country, but government forcing me to be charitable defeats the whole purpose of people-to-people action that Jesus calls us to take.
A perfect realization of his teachings would be theocratic communism. Many have tried, all have failed.
Well, that philosophical quandary of mine is solved. UA's views have always sucked dead horse ass, and younger me was fuckin' stupid.
The right-wing debate technique... Righty- The Earth is flat, and the moon is a cheese wheel!! Debate me coward!!! Everyone- Righty- You CANT rebutt me!! I win!!
Let's start with making corporations and the wealthy pay their fucking taxes. Then maybe you will see that people utilizing social safety nets have zero influence on the federal budget.
