Welfare by Drew
I think those who want to do away with all forms of social safety net and make people "earn" their way through life are fucked in the head. Horatio Alger makes for great propaganda, but that's about it. Funny how these myopic greedheads never seem to consider there might be a direct link between tax cuts and the bums who invade local parks and make it impossible for families to gather and have a peaceful time at play.
On the other hand, I don't have a whole lot of patience for people who seem to think living off taxpayer largesse is A-OK. To the greatest extent possible, people need to get off their asses and get jobs. I think this country has moved a bit too far away from the concept that work is ennobling.
How to balance these two seemingly contradictory impulses? I say lay down a floor, and leave the rest up to individuals.
It is borderline criminal for the richest country on Earth to allow anybody - anybody - to go without the following:
Food
Clothes
Shelter
That's not to say providing those basics should be a pleasant experience for the recipient. On the contrary, receiving such should as much as possible serve as an incentive to do better for oneself.
Let the taxpayer provide the absolute, bare-bones basics to keep people fed and sheltered. Not through welfare checks and food stamps, but literally through direct provisioning and rationing. Everybody who needs it will have a place to stay (public dormitory), clothing (government-issued jumpsuit), and enough to eat (nutrition bars) - anything beyond those basics is entirely up to the individual.
The way I see it, living in a dorm, wearing a jumpsuit and subsisting on nutrition bars should provide plenty of incentive to get a job to pay for an apartment, real clothes and a cheeseburger.
"Oh, but that's so draconian!" some may cry. "It would be so humiliating!". Gee, d'ya think? Good! All the more incentive to rise above living in those conditions. We already have a more-or-less functioning system of public education in this country. If you can read, write and do sums, you can do better than a jumpsuit, and you can do it without a welfare check.
So There.
On the other hand, I don't have a whole lot of patience for people who seem to think living off taxpayer largesse is A-OK. To the greatest extent possible, people need to get off their asses and get jobs. I think this country has moved a bit too far away from the concept that work is ennobling.
How to balance these two seemingly contradictory impulses? I say lay down a floor, and leave the rest up to individuals.
It is borderline criminal for the richest country on Earth to allow anybody - anybody - to go without the following:
Food
Clothes
Shelter
That's not to say providing those basics should be a pleasant experience for the recipient. On the contrary, receiving such should as much as possible serve as an incentive to do better for oneself.
Let the taxpayer provide the absolute, bare-bones basics to keep people fed and sheltered. Not through welfare checks and food stamps, but literally through direct provisioning and rationing. Everybody who needs it will have a place to stay (public dormitory), clothing (government-issued jumpsuit), and enough to eat (nutrition bars) - anything beyond those basics is entirely up to the individual.
The way I see it, living in a dorm, wearing a jumpsuit and subsisting on nutrition bars should provide plenty of incentive to get a job to pay for an apartment, real clothes and a cheeseburger.
"Oh, but that's so draconian!" some may cry. "It would be so humiliating!". Gee, d'ya think? Good! All the more incentive to rise above living in those conditions. We already have a more-or-less functioning system of public education in this country. If you can read, write and do sums, you can do better than a jumpsuit, and you can do it without a welfare check.
So There.
posted by Drew at 2:44 PM
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