This 6 minute video sums up the shocking facts of American wealth and inequality

[bitterlyclingin]

Fainting is a self limiting disease. Most people faint when the blood reaching the brain reaches such a low volume level that it cannot effectively oxygenate the brains neurons, at which point the individual falls to the floor, the blood no longer has to counter the effects of gravity to reach the neurons, which very quickly become oxygenated and consciousness returns.

Poverty is a self limiting disease. It provokes the sufferer, unless something is wrong with their intellect, demented, dysfunctional, or dug addled to change their life style to counter and improve the situation they find themselves in. A drowning person will do whatever is in their power to maintain themselves afloat on their own. The Democratic party, to maintain its electoral position endeavors to tell all the drowning people within earshot, we'll keep you afloat so you can continue breathing, you don't have to find your way to dry land anymore.

 

[Brain357]

I wonder why all the countries that I wouldn't want to live in have really bad wealth inequality?
File:GINI retouched legend.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strangely enough those with less inequality also seem to have the happiest people.
Norway - In Photos: The World's Happiest And Saddest Countries - Forbes

Crime rates also seem to be higher where there is more inequality.
Crime Index by Country 2013

But I guess CEOs just work 10X harder than they did in the 70's and are earning what they are getting? No greed or crony capitalism here...

I wonder why so many of the countries I wouldn't want to live in think it's their government's job to produce wealth equality? Oh, yeah, because of a surplus of leftist boobs who think Wikipedia is a source.

South Africa looking good to you is it?

 

[Asclepias]

Fainting is a self limiting disease. Most people faint when the blood reaching the brain reaches such a low volume level that it cannot effectively oxygenate the brains neurons, at which point the individual falls to the floor, the blood no longer has to counter the effects of gravity to reach the neurons, which very quickly become oxygenated and consciousness returns.

Poverty is a self limiting disease. It provokes the sufferer, unless something is wrong with their intellect, demented, dysfunctional, or dug addled to change their life style to counter and improve the situation they find themselves in. A drowning person will do whatever is in their power to maintain themselves afloat on their own. The Democratic party, to maintain its electoral position endeavors to tell all the drowning people within earshot, we'll keep you afloat so you can continue breathing, you don't have to find your way to dry land anymore.

Great analogy!! But wouldn't lending someone a hand that can't swim be better than letting them drown? Seems the Dems assumes you cant swim, the Reps never considers the possibility that you cant and the people in the middle actually ask the person drowning how they best can help.

 

[MikeK]

The minimum wage is a way to keep poor people poor so they continue to elect liberals to fix a problem created by liberals.

Before FDR signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law in the late 1930s, pitifully low wages was but one of the ways employees were exploited. If there were no minimum wage today the effect would resonate all the way to the top of the wage ladder and the bottom line would be a general reduction in the standard of living and quality of life for all who work for wages (the vast majority of Americans).

The thing for those indoctrinated with right-wing corporatist and eccentric Libertarian propaganda to keep in mind is prior to the enactment of laws which benefit and protect even the lowest category of worker there was an upper class and a lower class in America. That was it. The effect of the labor laws, along with the rise of the union movement, resulted in the most prosperous, productive decades in our history and created the venerated American Middle Class. That was neither an accident nor a coincidence.

It also is important to understand that putting money into the hands of that class of people who will spend it, the working class, is critically important to the health of the overall economy. It's called circulation and is as important to an economy as is the circulation of blood through any living organism. Those who acquire excessive wealth and hoard it create an effect which is precisely analogous to that of constricted or blocked arteries in the organism. When a nation's wealth resources are not moving through the arteries of that nation's economy it slows down -- the inevitable consequence of which is illness and death.

 

[RKMBrown]

It is better for the good of the country to allow those that earned their wealth to be able to keep it instead of supporting the government to go and steal it legally from them at the point of a gun with the vast power and resources of government behind it.
A growing dependent class is the problem and folks that earn their money are not the cause of that.

Why is the dependent class growing? Maybe because jobs are being sent overseas? Maybe because the jobs being created are low paying and/or part time? Meanwhile ceo pay has gone from being 30x that of the average worker in the 70s to 300x that of the average worker now.

Not one job ever has been sent overseas by any corporation, ever.
You demanded that there be shoes you can afford at $40-$70 a pair.
You would not buy shoes that cost $140 a pair on average.
YOU sent the jobs over seas.
And when the buggy manufacturers went out of business when the automobile came on the market they said the same thing.
The dumb ass, uneducated and unskilled always gets left behind.

? Huh? The last company I worked for laid off 20k workers. When they did it they offered to move me to China to be director of their software development group as a promotion to run the software teams that replaced my group. The product I built for them was selling at 80% profit. The highest profit margin of any software in the company. They did not reduce the price when they moved the software work to china. But they did give the executives a big fat bonus. They also offered to move me to Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, and India, and ... They further offered to give me a different promotion and bonuses if I agreed to take a job in the company flying around to customers 90% of the time. I wasn't even remotely interested in working for that company any more.

 

[RKMBrown]

What is wrong with me deciding for myself how much I'm willing to work for? So far, you only posited that it's wrong because the vast majority of other people don't think that way. Is being in the minority inherently wrong, in your view?

I think RKMBrown comes closest to answering this question honestly. Minimum wage is essentially government mandated unionism.

Thats a slight stretch. It may be an aspect unions mimic but its not government mandated unionism.

Not really, think about it. What are unemployment benefits and minimum wages if not union benefits of being a citizen? It's the same thing. I correlated the concept as a way to provide the flailing democrat a way to argue, possibly successfully, why we have and need a minimum wage. It's an argument worthy of arguing. Well much more so than the tact of, it is cause I know it is that the democrats typically take.

On a serious note, if this government won't stop the "international" firms from exploiting our markets with cheap foreign labor at the expense of American jobs.. who will? We need our Government (or unions) to fight together or we'll end up competing with the Chinese for rice. Some jobs "can't" move this is true. But there won't be any money left in this country to pay for the people in those jobs that can't move if we don't stop the bleeding.

I'm not worried at all about countries like India. It's china that gives me the willies. Those folks in china are "happy" to live on rice. The folks in India are like the brits, and us. They want the American dream. China.. not so much, they just want rice and a small box to live in.

 

[Gadawg73]

Why is the dependent class growing? Maybe because jobs are being sent overseas? Maybe because the jobs being created are low paying and/or part time? Meanwhile ceo pay has gone from being 30x that of the average worker in the 70s to 300x that of the average worker now.

Not one job ever has been sent overseas by any corporation, ever.
You demanded that there be shoes you can afford at $40-$70 a pair.
You would not buy shoes that cost $140 a pair on average.
YOU sent the jobs over seas.
And when the buggy manufacturers went out of business when the automobile came on the market they said the same thing.
The dumb ass, uneducated and unskilled always gets left behind.

? Huh? The last company I worked for laid off 20k workers. When they did it they offered to move me to China to be director of their software development group as a promotion to run the software teams that replaced my group. The product I built for them was selling at 80% profit. The highest profit margin of any software in the company. They did not reduce the price when they moved the software work to china. But they did give the executives a big fat bonus. They also offered to move me to Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, and India, and ... They further offered to give me a different promotion and bonuses if I agreed to take a job in the company flying around to customers 90% of the time. I wasn't even remotely interested in working for that company any more.

Where in all of this is the reason they went to China?
Your software development group employed 20,000 workers?
The main reason your company moved to China was the change in the world's economy, something the American worker and government sticks their heads in the sand in and hides from. Europe at one time was the strongest economy in the world but look what massive government control and high taxes do. Take an educated look at countries like India, China, Malaysia. They are offering EXTREME ADVANTAGES to invest there. Additionally, where is the growth for your company, in a declining America with growing government and taxes or in a big growth market like Asia? Add in the manpower for the growth and take a wild guess my man how many engineers in your industry China graduates ever year versus the American universities. 20 times more. Endless supply of an educated work force. If your company was making 80% profit then you should have been buying all the stock you could because I GUARANTEE the shareholders were receiving large dividends as software companies always do. Low labor costs with an educated work force and a growing consumer economy now at 1.5 billion and China looks a hell of a lot better for Big Market than the states. My son is a IT recruiter, there are over 1 million vacant jobs and they are not entry level. Add in LOW import duties, that would be TAXES, in China and LOW land costs because of LOW property taxes and huge concessions from the Chinese government. Friendly government to business and stability. Stable currency rate and the best security in the world there.
Fact is I can not stand the Chinks taking over but we are the stupid ones in all of this. We warned everyone but no one listens.
HIGH TAXES, an uneducated and dependent on government work force, constraints on business, punishment on capital investing for growth and debt at 45 cents of every dollar we spend and growing.
Time for this country to get off their ass and educate themselves TO WHAT THE MARKET DEMANDS. Low to no income tax, Fair Tax, abolish the IRS as to how much anyone makes in a year, abolish the capital gains tax and corporate tax and watch 20 trillion dollars come back into the economy tomorrow from overseas and another ten trillion open up as investment capital for growth.
It is the choice of the voters. One half is more concerned with gays marrying and the other with government giving them the security forcing corporations to guarantee everyone a "living wage".

 

[MikeK]

[...]

Poverty is a self limiting disease. It provokes the sufferer, unless something is wrong with their intellect, demented, dysfunctional, or dug addled to change their life style to counter and improve the situation they find themselves in. A drowning person will do whatever is in their power to maintain themselves afloat on their own. The Democratic party, to maintain its electoral position endeavors to tell all the drowning people within earshot, we'll keep you afloat so you can continue breathing, you don't have to find your way to dry land anymore.

The subtle flaw in that analogy is failure to distinguish between those who are swimming and those who are drowning. Those who are drowning are not swimming. They can't. So they are drowning. If you don't help them, they will drown. Die.

The unintended consequence of the situation the analogy refers to is its subjects are not drowning in water but in poverty, on dry land. So the question is what do we do with all the corpses -- and the implications as to the cause of their collective death. The question will arise as to whether or not we are civilized people.

 

[Gadawg73]

[...]

Poverty is a self limiting disease. It provokes the sufferer, unless something is wrong with their intellect, demented, dysfunctional, or dug addled to change their life style to counter and improve the situation they find themselves in. A drowning person will do whatever is in their power to maintain themselves afloat on their own. The Democratic party, to maintain its electoral position endeavors to tell all the drowning people within earshot, we'll keep you afloat so you can continue breathing, you don't have to find your way to dry land anymore.

The subtle flaw in that analogy is failure to distinguish between those who are swimming and those who are drowning. Those who are drowning are not swimming. They can't. So they are drowning. If you don't help them, they will drown. Die.

The unintended consequence of the situation the analogy refers to is its subjects are not drowning in water but in poverty, on dry land. So the question is what do we do with all the corpses -- and the implications as to the cause of their collective death. The question will arise as to whether or not we are civilized people.

If paying out the largest % of the budget is not being civilized then what is?
Food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and 80 other Federal overlapping programs account for 1.03 trillion of the budget.
These 83 programs SOLELY refer to means tested welfare benefits.
NO other budget item comes close.

You folks have lost your fucking minds

Per Senate Budget Committee

 

[Asclepias]

I think RKMBrown comes closest to answering this question honestly. Minimum wage is essentially government mandated unionism.

Thats a slight stretch. It may be an aspect unions mimic but its not government mandated unionism.

Not really, think about it. What are unemployment benefits and minimum wages if not union benefits of being a citizen? It's the same thing. I correlated the concept as a way to provide the flailing democrat a way to argue, possibly successfully, why we have and need a minimum wage. It's an argument worthy of arguing. Well much more so than the tact of, it is cause I know it is that the democrats typically take.

On a serious note, if this government won't stop the "international" firms from exploiting our markets with cheap foreign labor at the expense of American jobs.. who will? We need our Government (or unions) to fight together or we'll end up competing with the Chinese for rice. Some jobs "can't" move this is true. But there won't be any money left in this country to pay for the people in those jobs that can't move if we don't stop the bleeding.

I'm not worried at all about countries like India. It's china that gives me the willies. Those folks in china are "happy" to live on rice. The folks in India are like the brits, and us. They want the American dream. China.. not so much, they just want rice and a small box to live in.

Thats why I said a slight stretch. In the unions I have experienced the union dues (taxes) did not pay you for not working (unemployment). As to your serious note, the cheese has moved and people better wake up. if they dont the free market will no longer be free if the government has to intervene beyond ensuring the safety of Americans.

 

[koshergrl]

[...]

Poverty is a self limiting disease. It provokes the sufferer, unless something is wrong with their intellect, demented, dysfunctional, or dug addled to change their life style to counter and improve the situation they find themselves in. A drowning person will do whatever is in their power to maintain themselves afloat on their own. The Democratic party, to maintain its electoral position endeavors to tell all the drowning people within earshot, we'll keep you afloat so you can continue breathing, you don't have to find your way to dry land anymore.

The subtle flaw in that analogy is failure to distinguish between those who are swimming and those who are drowning. Those who are drowning are not swimming. They can't. So they are drowning. If you don't help them, they will drown. Die.

The unintended consequence of the situation the analogy refers to is its subjects are not drowning in water but in poverty, on dry land. So the question is what do we do with all the corpses -- and the implications as to the cause of their collective death. The question will arise as to whether or not we are civilized people.

You're right..except you've got it slightly skewed. You people are the ones who don't know what drowning is. You've had it so easy all your lives, you think if anyone has to think for themselves or scramble a little, or (heaven forbid) eat beans for a week or (lord have mercy) DISCONNECT the internet, that's "drowning".

It's not.

 

[Billy000]

Stop worrying about everyone else and just take care of yourself. It's that simple.

Lol no it really isn't that simple. There's good reason why this video has been posted many times. To me the facts in these videos are just as scary as the idea of our democracy transitioning into a totalitarianism regime. Could you worry only about youself if that were happening? This is very alarming shit. It's not liberal bullshit to say that the wealthy are seriously "Breaking Bad". They really are. The numbers prove it.

 

[RKMBrown]

Not one job ever has been sent overseas by any corporation, ever.
You demanded that there be shoes you can afford at $40-$70 a pair.
You would not buy shoes that cost $140 a pair on average.
YOU sent the jobs over seas.
And when the buggy manufacturers went out of business when the automobile came on the market they said the same thing.
The dumb ass, uneducated and unskilled always gets left behind.

? Huh? The last company I worked for laid off 20k workers. When they did it they offered to move me to China to be director of their software development group as a promotion to run the software teams that replaced my group. The product I built for them was selling at 80% profit. The highest profit margin of any software in the company. They did not reduce the price when they moved the software work to china. But they did give the executives a big fat bonus. They also offered to move me to Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, and India, and ... They further offered to give me a different promotion and bonuses if I agreed to take a job in the company flying around to customers 90% of the time. I wasn't even remotely interested in working for that company any more.

Where in all of this is the reason they went to China?
Your software development group employed 20,000 workers?
The main reason your company moved to China was the change in the world's economy, something the American worker and government sticks their heads in the sand in and hides from. Europe at one time was the strongest economy in the world but look what massive government control and high taxes do. Take an educated look at countries like India, China, Malaysia. They are offering EXTREME ADVANTAGES to invest there. Additionally, where is the growth for your company, in a declining America with growing government and taxes or in a big growth market like Asia? Add in the manpower for the growth and take a wild guess my man how many engineers in your industry China graduates ever year versus the American universities. 20 times more. Endless supply of an educated work force. If your company was making 80% profit then you should have been buying all the stock you could because I GUARANTEE the shareholders were receiving large dividends as software companies always do. Low labor costs with an educated work force and a growing consumer economy now at 1.5 billion and China looks a hell of a lot better for Big Market than the states. My son is a IT recruiter, there are over 1 million vacant jobs and they are not entry level. Add in LOW import duties, that would be TAXES, in China and LOW land costs because of LOW property taxes and huge concessions from the Chinese government. Friendly government to business and stability. Stable currency rate and the best security in the world there.
Fact is I can not stand the Chinks taking over but we are the stupid ones in all of this. We warned everyone but no one listens.
HIGH TAXES, an uneducated and dependent on government work force, constraints on business, punishment on capital investing for growth and debt at 45 cents of every dollar we spend and growing.
Time for this country to get off their ass and educate themselves TO WHAT THE MARKET DEMANDS. Low to no income tax, Fair Tax, abolish the IRS as to how much anyone makes in a year, abolish the capital gains tax and corporate tax and watch 20 trillion dollars come back into the economy tomorrow from overseas and another ten trillion open up as investment capital for growth.
It is the choice of the voters. One half is more concerned with gays marrying and the other with government giving them the security forcing corporations to guarantee everyone a "living wage".

>>> Where in all of this is the reason they went to China?
They went to China for two reasons. 1) To sell in China you have to build in China. They do not allow deficit sales to production like we allow here in the states. Want to sell in that market? Ok you have to build a plant there. 2) Labor rates. They can hire half a dozen for the same price as an American Engineer.

>>> Your software development group employed 20,000 workers?
They are down to 80k full timers in the USA now 400k abroad. Ten years ago it was 300k in the USA and 50k abroad. They had 4 layoffs in twelve months when my group got hit, hardware and software engineers. The first two were across the board cuts of all low performers in all groups. Then they laid off all the hardware people in my city moving those jobs around in a shell game as they hired Chinese forcing us to train the new guys in China as potential replacements. Then my entire group of 75 employees got hit as one of the groups of a 2k head count layoff. They had just purchased 4 companies at bargain prices in the recession and two of them had duplicate tech to my product. So ours was moved to china after we finished training them.

>>> If your company was making 80% profit then you should have been buying all the stock you could because I GUARANTEE the shareholders were receiving large dividends as software companies always do.

I did well. Can't complain about my pay. Though it would have been nice if I was not forced to sell my options when I left as that was at the bottom during the recession. My choice to make. Who knows maybe I'll go back some day as a contractor. I get offers from them from time to time. As you say it was just a financial transaction to improve the bottom line. Cheaper engineers available in china and a new market, so they took it. I had a choice to go the executive route and turned them down. Just not my cup of tea. Well that and I'm a family man. Don't want to uproot the family or live out of a briefcase.

>>>My son is a IT recruiter, there are over 1 million vacant jobs and they are not entry level.
Yeah, not really interested in sales, service, or IT type jobs. After you've led large development teams on Operating Systems, Java virtual machines, Web Browsers, Business Integration systems, Web Servers, Telecom Systems, etc. doing an IT job,... eh. Yeah, it's got to be done, but it's just not as interesting as being a lead architect for a large development team.

 

[RKMBrown]

Thats a slight stretch. It may be an aspect unions mimic but its not government mandated unionism.

Not really, think about it. What are unemployment benefits and minimum wages if not union benefits of being a citizen? It's the same thing. I correlated the concept as a way to provide the flailing democrat a way to argue, possibly successfully, why we have and need a minimum wage. It's an argument worthy of arguing. Well much more so than the tact of, it is cause I know it is that the democrats typically take.

On a serious note, if this government won't stop the "international" firms from exploiting our markets with cheap foreign labor at the expense of American jobs.. who will? We need our Government (or unions) to fight together or we'll end up competing with the Chinese for rice. Some jobs "can't" move this is true. But there won't be any money left in this country to pay for the people in those jobs that can't move if we don't stop the bleeding.

I'm not worried at all about countries like India. It's china that gives me the willies. Those folks in china are "happy" to live on rice. The folks in India are like the brits, and us. They want the American dream. China.. not so much, they just want rice and a small box to live in.

Thats why I said a slight stretch. In the unions I have experienced the union dues (taxes) did not pay you for not working (unemployment). As to your serious note, the cheese has moved and people better wake up. if they dont the free market will no longer be free if the government has to intervene beyond ensuring the safety of Americans.

I thought unions typically had a "bench." Countries around the world are "intervening" on behalf of their life blood labor markets. All but our country it seems. Our country seems hell bent on helping everyone but itself out. For example, in Germany you can't lay off workers and off shore the jobs to another country. I've seen many occasions where an American group was laid off sparing a team in Germany due to the laws in that country. In America there are protections to stop employers from laying off people in one state to move the job to another state. But you can lay them off in TX and move the job to China without any repercussions.

 

[MikeK]

[
If paying out the largest % of the budget is not being civilized then what is?
Food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and 80 other Federal overlapping programs account for 1.03 trillion of the budget.
These 83 programs SOLELY refer to means tested welfare benefits.
NO other budget item comes close.

You folks have lost your fucking minds

Per Senate Budget Committee

If you believe these assistance programs are excessive I have no argument. While I have no specific awareness of excess in any of the programs, if you do I am interested in reading any suggestions you might have for correcting the situation and I'll be pleased to discuss it with you.

 

[Brain357]

Not one job ever has been sent overseas by any corporation, ever.
You demanded that there be shoes you can afford at $40-$70 a pair.
You would not buy shoes that cost $140 a pair on average.
YOU sent the jobs over seas.
And when the buggy manufacturers went out of business when the automobile came on the market they said the same thing.
The dumb ass, uneducated and unskilled always gets left behind.

? Huh? The last company I worked for laid off 20k workers. When they did it they offered to move me to China to be director of their software development group as a promotion to run the software teams that replaced my group. The product I built for them was selling at 80% profit. The highest profit margin of any software in the company. They did not reduce the price when they moved the software work to china. But they did give the executives a big fat bonus. They also offered to move me to Saudi Arabia, and Brazil, and India, and ... They further offered to give me a different promotion and bonuses if I agreed to take a job in the company flying around to customers 90% of the time. I wasn't even remotely interested in working for that company any more.

Where in all of this is the reason they went to China?
Your software development group employed 20,000 workers?
The main reason your company moved to China was the change in the world's economy, something the American worker and government sticks their heads in the sand in and hides from. Europe at one time was the strongest economy in the world but look what massive government control and high taxes do. Take an educated look at countries like India, China, Malaysia. They are offering EXTREME ADVANTAGES to invest there. Additionally, where is the growth for your company, in a declining America with growing government and taxes or in a big growth market like Asia? Add in the manpower for the growth and take a wild guess my man how many engineers in your industry China graduates ever year versus the American universities. 20 times more. Endless supply of an educated work force. If your company was making 80% profit then you should have been buying all the stock you could because I GUARANTEE the shareholders were receiving large dividends as software companies always do. Low labor costs with an educated work force and a growing consumer economy now at 1.5 billion and China looks a hell of a lot better for Big Market than the states. My son is a IT recruiter, there are over 1 million vacant jobs and they are not entry level. Add in LOW import duties, that would be TAXES, in China and LOW land costs because of LOW property taxes and huge concessions from the Chinese government. Friendly government to business and stability. Stable currency rate and the best security in the world there.
Fact is I can not stand the Chinks taking over but we are the stupid ones in all of this. We warned everyone but no one listens.
HIGH TAXES, an uneducated and dependent on government work force, constraints on business, punishment on capital investing for growth and debt at 45 cents of every dollar we spend and growing.
Time for this country to get off their ass and educate themselves TO WHAT THE MARKET DEMANDS. Low to no income tax, Fair Tax, abolish the IRS as to how much anyone makes in a year, abolish the capital gains tax and corporate tax and watch 20 trillion dollars come back into the economy tomorrow from overseas and another ten trillion open up as investment capital for growth.
It is the choice of the voters. One half is more concerned with gays marrying and the other with government giving them the security forcing corporations to guarantee everyone a "living wage".

So your saying become more like China? Where you can't even see the sky because it's so polluted? Your joking right?

They are number 92 in GDP per capita:
List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They don't exactly have the happiest people in the world there.

Where is China without us to buy from them? Where will they be when another country becomes the new popular cheap labor country?

No thank you.

 

[RKMBrown]

[
If paying out the largest % of the budget is not being civilized then what is?
Food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and 80 other Federal overlapping programs account for 1.03 trillion of the budget.
These 83 programs SOLELY refer to means tested welfare benefits.
NO other budget item comes close.

You folks have lost your fucking minds

Per Senate Budget Committee

If you believe these assistance programs are excessive I have no argument. While I have no specific awareness of excess in any of the programs, if you do I am interested in reading any suggestions you might have for correcting the situation and I'll be pleased to discuss it with you.

I don't think the amounts are excessive for what they are allotted for. The problem, most conservatives have, is that these programs are no longer designed to get people on their own two feet. Obama and the democrats shut down the welfare reforms enacted during the Clinton Administration.

 

[Gadawg73]

I am a reasonable man that welcomes alternatives as the current assistance programs punish those that are willing to get better and then get off of the assistance at some time and reward those that have more children while on the assistance thus raising their benefits.
I am not claiming all, many or even the majority have more children because they want more benefits.
But to deny that these assistance programs are rewarding irresponsible behavior is ignorance and the fact is they directly are rapidly growing an uneducated, young, poor and single parent household society.

 

[Billy000]

[
If paying out the largest % of the budget is not being civilized then what is?
Food stamps, public housing, Medicaid and 80 other Federal overlapping programs account for 1.03 trillion of the budget.
These 83 programs SOLELY refer to means tested welfare benefits.
NO other budget item comes close.

You folks have lost your fucking minds

Per Senate Budget Committee

If you believe these assistance programs are excessive I have no argument. While I have no specific awareness of excess in any of the programs, if you do I am interested in reading any suggestions you might have for correcting the situation and I'll be pleased to discuss it with you.

I don't think the amounts are excessive for what they are allotted for. The problem, most conservatives have, is that these programs are no longer designed to get people on their own two feet. Obama and the democrats shut down the welfare reforms enacted during the Clinton Administration.

That's a complete Romney distortion. If you go to factcheck.org's website and look up Romney's statement about Obama's change to welfare, you will see that Obama did not "shut down" anything.

From article:

"work requirements were not 'dropped'. States may now change the requirements - revising, adding, or eliminating them. As part of a federally approved specific plan to increase job placement."

"It will not 'gut' the 1996 plan to ease requirements. Benefits still won't be paid beyond an alloted time, whether the recipient is working or not."

It gives a detailed, balanced analysis of what exactly the changes were that were made to the program. As you'll see, you were spoon fed Republican bullshit.

(I am on my cell phone and am not tech savvy with copy and pasting. If you want to read for your self, go to the website and search for "Romney, Obama welfare" the first result is the page.)

 

[koshergrl]

"In 1996, Congress enacted welfare reform legislation that included three main elements, the most important being the work requirement. As a result of this reform, welfare caseloads dropped by half and employment rates among welfare recipients soared. Nonetheless, this sparked significant liberal opposition, which has increased over the years even though the vast majority of Americans favor work requirements. Unable to roll back workfare legislatively, liberals are employing an illegal bureaucratic tactic to gut the work requirements in the original legislation. The Obama Administration has declared the work provisions null and void and has granted itself unlimited authority to re-craft the work standards in any manner it chooses. "

"However, in July 2012, the Obama Administration issued a bureaucratic edict proposing to overturn the work requirements that formed the core of the 1996 law. This action by the Obama Administration clearly violated the intent and letter of the legislation."

Work and Welfare Reform: Impact of Workfare Programs