General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhere's the common sense in the latest red meat, right wing welfare "facts"?
Common sense, people.
The new Fox News, right wing bull-shit line is that people make more on welfare than they do by working. Once the average American hears that line, they naturally assume the loafers on welfare are choosing to stay home rather than work.
Of course, the common sense way to look at that statement is not that welfare pays too much. It's that the average worker is paid too little. What we have here today is a corporate welfare system which permeates the private sector. Big corporations hire service workers (after all, we are becoming a service sector driven economy) at low wages and no benefits. The worker supplements his or her income with public housing, food stamps and government health care. It's not that these workers are lazy, after all they work and work hard for a living. It's just that corporations, which once had a social responsibility, used to provide a living wage, health care and pension benefits.
Those days are gone.
How about making sure anyone who works for a living gets a living wage (not less than $15 an hour) and health care benefits.
Remember in the 60's and 70's, that was a common way of life and we had a booming economy.
Strong unions, good middle class jobs and the wealthy didn't seem to suffer too much.
Let's use our heads when this nonsense gets repeated into the public discourse. Let's make work worth it, and there will be fewer people on welfare and subsidies.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)eventually Americans may pull their head out and realize the importance of Labor.
louis c
(8,652 posts)I've been thinking about this all day.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)and "Union- HELL yes" I have never belonged to one, unfortunately, but most have benefitted from the fight of our forefathers.
bhikkhu
(10,708 posts)...what would common sense dictate?
on edit - but even with that said, "welfare" was essentially ended under Clinton; what we have now is the TANF program which is much harder to qualify for. What most repugs are talking about isn't that, as it has been steadily declining for many years, even through the recession. What they are talking about is the food stamp program. Even that you have to say - if people are working (and most people on the program are working) why are they not being paid enough to put food on the table? Maybe they make enough to pay the rent, but not much else. Why should anyone working full time not be able to afford to eat?
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)Welfare of the 60s and 70s is over .. and those that do qualify for this ''welfare to work'' program are usually poor single mothers with kids. FOX is so abominable they make me vomit. This country has gone to hell and the people are too stupid to know it.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)...and go into the "Welfare Office" and the government will give you free money to stay home.
I bet there are white people who have gotten fed up and tried that and when they found out they can't get free money their fist thought was that whole "welfare" thing must only be for "coloreds".
Betcha Republicans lie to these people to tell them that's what's happening too.
It explains their anger over Obama getting elected. The myth told by the Right is the reason the economy collapsed is because Obama increased welfare for his own kind. FOX "News" claimed Obama was stealing from your grandma's Medicare to pay for Obamacare which they claimed was free healthcare for black people.
Makes you wonder if a political party can be abolished for the damage it's doing to the nation.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)The welfare programs. Pay these people enough money to stop the welfare.
louis c
(8,652 posts)stupidicus
(2,570 posts)Secondly it's just one of countless examples of rightwingnut, "both ways" BS. They'll whine about the lack of jobs and demand people find them in practically the same breath.
dem in texas
(2,672 posts)People who make minimum wage can't get by without food stamps, some type of health care assistance (maybe going to the emergency room) and housing assistance. Because the big corporations, don't pay them a decent wage, the taxpayers have to step in and help. Then the big corporations (like Walmart) pocket huge profits and everyone forgets that they would not be making these profits if not for the help their low paid employees are getting from the government. It's disgusting!
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)Mr.Bill
(24,103 posts)The way I look at it at my age, (in my 60s) is that in the 60s, minimum wage, (1.25-1.65) would buy four to five gallons of gas. Today minimum wage will buy you about two gallons of gas. That's as good a measure as any manipulated government figures, because gas pretty much drives the price of everything.
doc03
(35,148 posts)this afternoon. Something about people in New York on welfare making an equivalent of $20 an hour and won't take jobs. Now I know where he got it, Fox of course. I just said who could blame them you can't get a job that pays that much. The Republicans are always bitching about people getting rich on welfare, I wonder why they don't just go on welfare if it is so fucking good.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Damn. Wish I woulda said it.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)This ignores the other part-- expenses have been rising.
In years past, low income housing, public, private, and "other" was available. Even as the tenements and rooming houses disappeared, there were opportunities for housing projects, Mitchell-Lama and Trump's father to build cheap rental housing. A low income family could actually live back then.
Now, many of the jobs moved to the 'burbs, with no train or bus service. After you pay your huge rent, you have to get a car to get to your underpaid job.
It never was easy, but now it's damn near impossible.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The prosperity we enjoyed in the late 20th Century was a historical aberration.
It existed mostly because of the labor movement. Another reason for the high standard of living during the late 20th Century was that our government felt the need to prove capitalism superior to the "red menace". At no other time in history were there living standards approaching that level for "ordinary" people.
Expect American living standards to decline rapidly without a strong labor movement. In fact it is happening right before our eyes.
Dark n Stormy Knight
(9,760 posts)wealthy individuals. Focus on the evil poor!