Seattle welfare recipient lives in million-dollar home

[bookjones]

I dont think she was being completely unreasonable, she was more or less saying welfare shouldnt be a crutch to afford luxuries. The one time my mom made me work in a soup kitchen when i was 12 on christmas, exactly what this woman said was the case with 90% of the people I was serving.



I saw people arriving to eat in brand new cars and 300 dollars worth of clothes and shoes while im wearing my brothers hand me downs and payless shoes, because I was being supported by a single mother who didnt get government assistance. She would have for sure qualified, but she didnt feel she "needed" it. We didnt have cable tv for example all through jr. high, and only had one tv where the tube was going bad at that.



government assistance should not be there to provide you with luxuries, it should however be there to feed you, cloth you and house you within reason in your time of need.

Yeah, she really was in my estimation. If one is going to attempt to argue for reforms to something as vast and complex as how federal, state, and local tax money are distributed then going with sweeping, draconian, oversimplifications is pretty much going to leave me no choice but to summarily dismiss her arguments as rubbish. Seriously? Talking about forced sterilizations? Come on, that's barbaric. Mandatory drug testing because someone somehow receives benefits from tax paid services? *I* get benefits from services that are paid by taxes, like maintained roads, public education, libraries, etc. That's my point. Who is any one person to decide what's "luxury"? If my example of higher education were to play out and I said in one year all state universities must become private, that would undoubtedly cause an immediate critical mass failure in the higher education system. An immediate social crisis would be born. A college education is a "luxury" by any reasonable developed or undeveloped world standards. There are farmers who have been receiving farm subsidies for AGES. If that stopped effective immediately it would cause a crisis in the Agro., food chain, and manufactoring industries with a ripple effect felt by all shopping Americans. And it would be swift IMO. Trying to seriously work on the issue of weening some people, organizations, agencies off of so-called benefits no matter the type requires some fucking pensive consideration not shit like force birth control in them bitches arms or better yet, cut em open and tie their shit up! Man, **** that 21 year old *****.



I agree with likely every reasonable person that reforms need to be made to MANY tax expenditures and most certainly not just the cliche "welfare" pot. That's the point of my "crazyass" post. We don't get to individually decide how our monies are divvied out to agencies---it's far too complex an issue to just always just single out, "Welfare! Those who get that are a special kind of beneficiary and are subject to extra special, extra instrusive litmus tests to prove their worthiness of the benefit."

 

[bookjones]

Come on BJ, she's lived, she's suffered, she's 21.

IKR? The horror! The horror! Kurtz. Talk about hearts of darkness indeed buddy.

 

[jaxhawksfan]

Oh good lord. What a crazy *****.



I am an employed, law-abiding taxpayer so let's see what I can come up with if I got to determine how my tax dollars were parsed shall we. . .



Put me in charge of the money for the highways and roads! I don't drive. I live in the city and work in the city. I take public transportation or pay out as I go with taxis. I am tired of my tax dollars subsisidizing fucking surburbanites and their insatiable thirst for their cars. I'd rather not keep paying into the state and federal highway, interstate, tollway infrastructure because I could care less if every goddamn suburb dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow. You want to work in the city, live in the city then take some mass transportation or else work in the burbs where you can choose to have YOUR tax dollars maintain the transportation infrastructure. I would only give the money that would normally be allocated to the transportation infrastructure to those non-city people as subsidies if they can prove that they are taking mass transportation or who's cities are making an effort to start designing and building feasible mass transit systems (but they better make it PDQ! as I have zero patience for people who think driving a car on finsihed and maintained roads is an inalienable right). It's not my fault people want to live out in the boonies. And good lord, the relief we could get from the fuel dependence---just a win-win situation that keeps on giving.





Put me in charge of the money that goes to state/public universities. *I* went to a private college. Why the **** should I have to help pay for tens of thousands of average Americans to send their kids to the University of Illinois, Illinois State, etc. **** that. You want to go to so-called "public" universities and colleges then I am affraid under my totalitarian regime they will have to start implementing plans to switch to the private sector model. Either raise kids smart enough to win scholarships or grants which have no payback requirements or pony up yourselves or else make your kids get jobs and pay themselves even if it the average years for earning an undergrad degree must go up to 8-10. Otherwise get used to just not being able to go to non-private college and find a way to get along with all the rest of the traditionally under-educated population who have to make do.



Put me in charge of the glorious monies from this nation's beloved farm subsidies. TALK about welfare. Don't give a **** if farms/the land have been in families for generations---not my fucking problem. Either be able to operate a farm or not. If you can great, grow shit and then sell it to market but don't expect me to any longer keep helping you to own a family business. Additionally, if you can operate a farm stop growing an excess of crops which the market doesn't support. If you can't afford to operate a farm without subsidies then get out of the farming business. Since this is billions we're talking about I'd say that money should be used almost ANYWHERE else.





Yeah, see how easy it is to sound like a "me and mine" crackhead hysteric?

Only problem I see here is that people in "the boonies" pay taxes just like you do for the roads. Just because you live within city limits doesn't mean you are the only one who pays taxes for roadways.

 

[mikita's helmet]

IKR? The horror! The horror! Kurtz. Talk about hearts of darkness indeed buddy.

KURTZ HEAD PALM

 

[the canadian dream]

And penis pumps. We need to provide penis pumps when needed, to the tune of 240 million in medicare benefits.

That's just crazy!! I can't believe erectile disfunction is an actual illness in the books for people who are 65 years old!!! That's not an illness.... that's called being 65 years old!!!!



Unreal. Funny though.

 

[supraman]

Yeah, she really was in my estimation. If one is going to attempt to argue for reforms to something as vast and complex as how federal, state, and local tax money are distributed then going with sweeping, draconian, oversimplifications is pretty much going to leave me no choice but to summarily dismiss her arguments as rubbish. Seriously? Talking about forced sterilizations? Come on, that's barbaric. Mandatory drug testing because someone somehow receives benefits from tax paid services? *I* get benefits from services that are paid by taxes, like maintained roads, public education, libraries, etc. That's my point. Who is any one person to decide what's "luxury"? If my example of higher education were to play out and I said in one year all state universities must become private, that would undoubtedly cause an immediate critical mass failure in the higher education system. An immediate social crisis would be born. A college education is a "luxury" by any reasonable developed or undeveloped world standards. There are farmers who have been receiving farm subsidies for AGES. If that stopped effective immediately it would cause a crisis in the Agro., food chain, and manufactoring industries with a ripple effect felt by all shopping Americans. And it would be swift IMO. Trying to seriously work on the issue of weening some people, organizations, agencies off of so-called benefits no matter the type requires some fucking pensive consideration not shit like force birth control in them bitches arms or better yet, cut em open and tie their shit up! Man, **** that 21 year old *****.



I agree with likely every reasonable person that reforms need to be made to MANY tax expenditures and most certainly not just the cliche "welfare" pot. That's the point of my "crazyass" post. We don't get to individually decide how our monies are divvied out to agencies---it's far too complex an issue to just always just single out, "Welfare! Those who get that are a special kind of beneficiary and are subject to extra special, extra instrusive litmus tests to prove their worthiness of the benefit."

So what happens when we keep giving these benefits and our currency finally becomes worseless and our economy collaspes completely? Then guess what, we are ALL fucking poor because the government spent too much for too long (On a lot of things, not just welfare) and the Federal Reserve Bank printed money like it is going out of style.



The Keynesian economic model is a house of cards.

 

[Tater]

There are farmers who have been receiving farm subsidies for AGES. If that stopped effective immediately it would cause a crisis in the Agro., food chain, and manufactoring industries with a ripple effect felt by all shopping Americans. And it would be swift IMO.

I see your point and agree force birth control is total bullshit, but farming is a booming business.

Most farming is corporate owned and now with corn used for ethanol, these farms are banking TONS of money.

Can we really afford to subsidize a large corporation making huge profits? Where does the money come from for this, China?



I'm not lumping small family farms in with the corporate, but they have also been making huge profits for years.

 

[TSD]

Yeah, she really was in my estimation. If one is going to attempt to argue for reforms to something as vast and complex as how federal, state, and local tax money are distributed then going with sweeping, draconian, oversimplifications is pretty much going to leave me no choice but to summarily dismiss her arguments as rubbish. Seriously? Talking about forced sterilizations? Come on, that's barbaric. Mandatory drug testing because someone somehow receives benefits from tax paid services? *I* get benefits from services that are paid by taxes, like maintained roads, public education, libraries, etc. That's my point. Who is any one person to decide what's "luxury"? If my example of higher education were to play out and I said in one year all state universities must become private, that would undoubtedly cause an immediate critical mass failure in the higher education system. An immediate social crisis would be born. A college education is a "luxury" by any reasonable developed or undeveloped world standards. There are farmers who have been receiving farm subsidies for AGES. If that stopped effective immediately it would cause a crisis in the Agro., food chain, and manufactoring industries with a ripple effect felt by all shopping Americans. And it would be swift IMO. Trying to seriously work on the issue of weening some people, organizations, agencies off of so-called benefits no matter the type requires some fucking pensive consideration not shit like force birth control in them bitches arms or better yet, cut em open and tie their shit up! Man, **** that 21 year old *****.



I agree with likely every reasonable person that reforms need to be made to MANY tax expenditures and most certainly not just the cliche "welfare" pot. That's the point of my "crazyass" post. We don't get to individually decide how our monies are divvied out to agencies---it's far too complex an issue to just always just single out, "Welfare! Those who get that are a special kind of beneficiary and are subject to extra special, extra instrusive litmus tests to prove their worthiness of the benefit."

ok so sterilization was a little extreme. and im not against welfare im against abuse of it. Im all for privatizing college. People that go have to pay tuition anyway, and when you are already talking thousands upon thousands of dollars, whats a little more for a private college.

 

[jaxhawksfan]

After thinking about this for a day I have come to the conclusion that your rebuttal is not a valid comparison bookjones. Apples and Oranges. I'm sure there are things that each one of us would rather not pay for, but we do or are forced to do. The scenario presented by the 21 year old speaks to the abuses in the system and your scenario points to the system in general. People don't mind welfare, food stamps, WIC, etc.........because it serves a purpose. What they don't like are the abuses that run rampant in those programs. Whether or not you use the roadways is irrelevant. Taxes pay for them , just as my tax dollars pay for public schools even though I don't have kids. The biggest difference between the two is that she points out how accepting money from the government is voluntary, while the government taking your tax dollars for roads, schools and libraries is involuntary.

 

[bookjones]

ok so sterilization was a little extreme. and im not against welfare im against abuse of it. Im all for privatizing college. People that go have to pay tuition anyway, and when you are already talking thousands upon thousands of dollars, whats a little more for a private college.

Thank you! Peoples my post was about extremes. You think I actually give a **** that my tax dollars are used to pay for the roads or for public universities? Why the **** would I care about that anymore than my money going to pay for parks, libraries, the State Attorney's salary, fire departments, turning the river green on St. Patty's Day, the military complex, Headstart, and on and on and on. The point I am trying to get at is given 15 minutes of putting our thinking caps on each and every one of us could come up with a bullet list of tax allocation or else tax allocation abuse gripes. Is it realistic or even just practical though to proffer up solutions that are fucking half-baked? Trying to be an overlord is hardly "reform" IMO.

 

[jaxhawksfan]

Your post may be about extremes, but people on food stamps buying ho-ho's and steak isn't an extreme example. Neither extreme is someone on welfare having more kids to get more money, or people living in HUD apartments who trash the place and have flat screens and gaming systems. Again, we are talking about abuses, not the normal government spending our tax money on shit we don't want them to.

 

[roshinaya]

According to the Dept. of Labor about 2% of the people on welfare commit fraud. Hardly rampant. And in the UK, which has a far more extensive welfare programs, the number of fraud is less than 1%, so the notion that welfare somehow attracts a lot of fraud is simply untrue. It's just a myth perpetrated by those that want to get rid of it.

 

[Tater]

According to the Dept. of Labor about 2% of the people on welfare commit fraud. Hardly rampant. And in the UK, which has a far more extensive welfare programs, the number of fraud is less than 1%, so the notion that welfare somehow attracts a lot of fraud is simply untrue. It's just a myth perpetrated by those that want to get rid of it.

Really? You believe a Dept. of Labor report on this?



Naaa, they don't have a vested interest in covering up a lack of gov't oversight.

 

[supraman]

Really? You believe a Dept. of Labor report on this?



Naaa, they don't have a vested interest in covering up a lack of gov't oversight.

Don't worry Tater if we just give all our money to the Great lea- I mean government everything will be okay.

 

[roshinaya]

Whatever. If something doesn't match with your worldview it's always about liberal bias or the big bad government and then ignored. Point is that welfare abuse is NOT rampant and highly exaggerated. It's too bad reality doesn't match your view of the world, but it doesn't make it wrong. But keep living in your bubbles.

 

[supraman]

Whatever. If something doesn't match with your worldview it's always about liberal bias or the big bad government and then ignored. Point is that welfare abuse is NOT rampant and highly exaggerated. It's too bad reality doesn't match your view of the world, but it doesn't make it wrong. But keep living in your bubbles.

I would but the government keeps taxing my fucking bubble

 

[winos5]

I wonder how they define fraud or abusing the system?

 

[Tater]

I wonder how they define fraud or abusing the system?

And how often do they check? How many are in the agency that checks these things?



Go to any grocery store and you can see it constantly.

 

[winos5]

Is this abusing the system or just an unfortunate family that needs some help.

 

[supraman]

And how often do they check? How many are in the agency that checks these things?



Go to any grocery store and you can see it constantly.

Remember Crab Legs are a necessity