Andylusion
Platinum Member
First off, most bailouts for the rich, are bailouts for the poor.
At least, that is the way it is intended. For example, bailing out General Motors was by the Left-Wing, considered a way to save blue collar workers.
Most bailouts are sold as a way to save working class people.
Even the bank bailouts are supposedly to help the lower-class because if all the banks fail, then the economy will tank, and the poorest people won't have jobs.
At least that's the claim.
All that aside, a $15 hour minimum wage would eliminate jobs for the lower class. Not create them.
Again, when the minimum wage was originally pushed, economists wanted the minimum wage specifically because it eliminate jobs for undesirable minorities. They believed that the minimum wage would eliminate their jobs, and those groups would starve and die off.
But more than that, government handouts are actually the worst possible thing for the poor.
Doing a 'bailout for the poor', is a great way to keep people poor. Nothing dooms a person to poverty, than teaching them to wait on government to hand them something for free.
The primary way a person becomes wealthy, is by learning how to both manage their income and assets, and to generate income and assets.
Well if you have a set income that is guaranteed, you don't have to worry about keeping anything. And if you have no hope of increasing your income beyond what other people give you, you have no need to worry about generating more income.
This is one of the reasons that the Spanish empire led to Spain being the poorest in Europe. The Spanish empire imported from their raiding and colonizing activities, over 17,000 tons of silver alone. That doesn't include gold, and other imported goods from their various military moves.
The result was that prior to the 1600, Spain was relatively on par with the rest of Europe. But after the 1700, when their state run companies, and plunder ran out of easy gains, the Spanish were backward, and behind economically. Having all their freely collected and dolled out government money, allowed the Spanish to avoid learning how to manager their assets, and how to advance their productivity.
Today Spain is one of the poorest country in the EU.
Another example would be Europe after World War 2. When you think how entire cities in Europe were leveled to the ground, an utterly wiped off the map, compared to many other places in the world, that were not touched by the world war.
Yet nearly all of Europe reemerged as a wealthy 1st world countries, after being knocked back to almost zero.
How did this happen? Because the people of Europe knew how to create an income. The people of Europe knew how to manage their assets and wealth.
That's why. This is the key. The people who know how to create wealth, and manage wealth, end up with wealth.
The people who don't know, and learn how to be dependent on others, never have either the income, or the management to keep what they earn.
The same is true to this very day.
I just learned today, about the native Americans in the US.
Did you know, that to this very day, the most subsidized group in the US, is native Americans? No other minority group, collects as much in government subsidies as Native Americans, this includes Blacks and Hispanics. Yet the income level for Native Americans is lower, and poverty is higher, than Blacks and Hispanics.
Coincidence?
Well, I'll give you one more informational tidbit. There is a native American Tribe most people have never heard of, written about in a book "Crazy Like a Fox", called the Lumbee Indians located in North Carolina.
The reason you have never heard of them, is because they are not a recognized Indian Tribe. Because they are not recognized, they get no benefits. No land. No hand outs. No free health care. No free education. No government funded investments.
And they are the most wealthy native Americans in the country today, that have a standard of living comparable to White and Asians.
My point to you is this.... You want to help the poor? Help them to live on their labor. Help them to manage their income.
The absolute worst thing you can do, is subsidize their bad choices and bad work ethic.
Ironically, I was just listening to a BBC documentary, that was just random stories by listeners, sent in, and compiled by the BBC. One was a guy that quit working, lost his home, and was living in an Airport Terminal. He lived there, in the terminal, for over almost 2 years, eating food left in garbage cans, and drinking from bottles people left because their gate opened, and they had to make the flight.
The turning point in his life came because a police officer happen to notice him, followed him, and caught him asleep. The officer forced him off the Airport property, and because of that, he swallowed his pride, asked a friend to put him up, got a minimum wage job so he could get a cheap appartment, and got an apprenticeship program for wielding. Now he has a wife and kids and a house, and a life.
He of course credits the lady who let him stay for a few months.
But in reality, it was the police officer that forced him away from his free room and board. It wasn't hand outs that improved his life. It was threat of starvation on the street, that caused him to dump his pride, and learn what he had to, in order to make his life better.
End subsidies. End welfare. End free handouts. That will be the best thing for the poor. They will have no choice but to improve their lives, and because of that, they will improve their lives. Instead of being doomed to poverty, like they are today.
