Debate Now A Hard Look at the MAGA Movement

[JoeB131]

We need welfare reform to encourage welfare bums to take jobs they might prefer to avoid

We tried that under Clinton. It failed.

The problem is, the "Welfare bums" you complain about don't actually exist. Most people on welfare are either disabled, minors, or the elderly. Most people on welfare are only on it for a few years. A lot of people on some assistance programs DO have jobs, just not ones that pay well enough to pay for necessities.

The idea that there is some untapped labor pool out there is just laughable.

Right now, the labor participation rate is about 63%. It's never been higher than 69%, and it started declining in 2011 when the first baby-boomers started hitting retirement age.

In 2014, the BLS observed that of the 35% of the population that wasn't part of the labor force at that time, 6.5% were ill or disabled, 15.4% were elderly or retired. 5.4% had home responsibilities, and 6.4% were going to school.

People who are not in the labor force: why aren't they working?

People who are neither working nor looking for work are counted as “not in the labor force,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since 2000, the percentage of people in this group has increased. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and its Annual Social and Economic...

www.bls.gov

 

[JoeB131]

Disagree 100%. Americans could have families with many Children if not forced to work sunup to sundown to death to pay for ungratefull non-working citizens and millions more Illegals AND a GOVT that spends 50% more than its Contstitutional obligations. We have to cover 30 car caravans to haul a brain-dead corpse to Scotland for a GW conference. 5Star hotels with few congress persons renting out entire floors for weeks (security). Just on example of millions of them.

Hey, dummy, most of what government spends is on Social Security, Medicare and the military. There just isn't that much to cut.

The reason why so much of it falls on the working class is we don't make corporations or the rich pay their fair share.

I just laid out above why the supposed welfare bum is kind of a myth.

Decades of Deep State policy caused any decline. HS College students used to cut lawns and carry bricks as they learned the value of work.

You are almost at a point here. When I went to college, I worked two minimum-wage jobs and was in the National Guard.

Kids don't do that anymore. Why? They've realized that it's kind of pointless. A minimum wage job won't even put a dent into a college tuition today. It's better to just take out a loan, get some scholarships, and hope you land a lucrative enough job after college to pay off your debts.

 

[Mac-7]

We tried that under Clinton. It failed.

The problem is, the "Welfare bums" you complain about don't actually exist. Most people on welfare are either disabled, minors, or the elderly. Most people on welfare are only on it for a few years. A lot of people on some assistance programs DO have jobs, just not ones that pay well enough to pay for necessities.

The idea that there is some untapped labor pool out there is just laughable.

Right now, the labor participation rate is about 63%. It's never been higher than 69%, and it started declining in 2011 when the first baby-boomers started hitting retirement age.

In 2014, the BLS observed that of the 35% of the population that wasn't part of the labor force at that time, 6.5% were ill or disabled, 15.4% were elderly or retired. 5.4% had home responsibilities, and 6.4% were going to school.

People who are not in the labor force: why aren't they working?

People who are neither working nor looking for work are counted as “not in the labor force,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since 2000, the percentage of people in this group has increased. Data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and its Annual Social and Economic...

www.bls.gov

What I often hear from lib apologists for the need for welfare is the future loss of jobs due to artificial intelligence

Yet you want to want to import for people that other libs think we do not need

 

[JoeB131]

What I often hear from lib apologists for the need for welfare is the future loss of jobs due to artificial intelligence

The fear of being replaced by a machine has been going on my whole life...and probably before.

When they develop an AI that can clean toilets, pick lettuce, or take care of little Yuppie kids, let me know.

Yet you want to want to import for people that other libs think we do not need

I wouldn't know what "other libs" you are talking about.

Here's the thing. I used to work in a plant that manufactured electronic components before they moved those jobs to Malaysia.

On the plant floor, they determined that there were 19 different languages spoken by the employees, including Spanish, Polish, Hindi, Gujarati, Vietnamese, Khmer, Russian, Romanian, Visiyan, Japanese, Mandarin, and a few others I don't remember. I used to joke that our average employee should have been named "Maria Patel" because half of them were named Patel and the other half were named Maria.