Feed the poor or Fight more crime”.Which is cheaper..

[RobForaker]

“What our fearless leaders can't comprehend is the fact that when rich people want money they draw money out...poor people are more likely to rob the bank, so now we need more police due to a raise in the crime rate....Which is cheaper... Feed the poor or Fight more crime”

[max1]

I say we set up a soup kitchen, check ID's at the door and arrest those who are breaking the law...

Good question Rob, but I would look to the root of the issue....jobs. Facts are that crime rates are generally down during times of good employment. :-)

[RobForaker]

I say we set up a soup kitchen, check ID's at the door and arrest those who are breaking the law...

Good question Rob, but I would look to the root of the issue....jobs. Facts are that crime rates are generally down during times of good employment. :-)

Yes, jobs are part of this issue..You qualify for food stamps with a minimum wage job...Ironic?

[max1]

thats not an instant qualification, there are many other factors...

[childOfLacroix]

I agree that we don't just need "jobs." We need jobs that pay enough for adults to support themselves. I read an article this week that said while unemployment insurance claims are down, food stamp usage is up. This is because people have maxed out their UI benefits, but they still haven't found gainful employment. They're either (1) still unemployed or (2) working at jobs that pay so little they qualify for welfare.

Crime isn't the only concern. I am convinced--absolutely convinced--that the suicide rate in this country due to unemployment is very high, but that the gov't is covering it up. It is easy to dismiss suicides as being due to "preexisting mental illness." Letters or videos to the contrary can be made to mysteriously vanish; coroners, who work for the government, can be pressured to rule deaths "accidents" even when they are clearly not. And many breadwinners likely stage their suicides to look like accidents in hopes that their spouses and children will be able to collect on life insurance.

I've heard it said that the family unit is backbone of society. I've never believed that. The backbone of society is JOBS. Without jobs, without the means to support itself, the family unit crumbles.

The focus shouldn't be on "feeding the poor." It should be on ensuring that everyone who is willing and able to work hard has the opportunity to work themselves out of poverty. That's the way the America I grew up in was; only people who plain wouldn't work ended up mired in a lifetime of poverty. People who were willing to dedicate themselves to working and pursuing money above all else could claw their way to a decent lifestyle. That's not the way this country is now. Work ethic no longer matters, because there are no opportunities to work.

Except for people who have spent their lives living off the system, I don't know anyone who would rather have welfare than a job, particularly if they've never collected it in their lives. They don't want the gov't to feed them. They want the gov't to get out of their way and let them make money, so they can feed themselves.

[longnecker]

[QUOTE=RobForaker;323215]Yes, jobs are part of this issue..You qualify for food stamps with a minimum wage job...Ironic
Yes Rob it's ironic but unfortunately VERY true. Now take one of those folks and lay them off. Try to live on unemployment from their meager wages with of course no medical coverage.

[childOfLacroix]

Yes, the only people who live well off unemployment--or welfare, for that matter--are the people who know how to scam the system. They sell drugs or perform otherwise "legit" work under the table, or have someone handing them money. The latter often happens when a birthmother tells the gov't she has no idea where the birthfather of her child is. She then gets awarded welfare, while at the same time collecting cash on the sly from the birthfather, who lives right down the street.

For awhile, some people lived great off of unemployment because their spouse still worked and made a good living; the $300.00/week or so in UI was chump change because their spouse made six figures or close to it. However, now that everyone is being laid off, I strongly suspect the numbers of these types of people have plummeted.

The system punishes the honest and rewards the thieving.

I've got a degree in Math & Computer Science. I have no criminal record, I can pass a drug test, my resume has no typos on it, I don't show up for interviews in belly shirts and flip-flops, and I know I can't just tell my boss to go F off if I get mad. I've never had difficulty securing work in the past. Even when I got out of high school and had no skills (I couldn't attend college then, because I had to leave home -- meanwhile, endometriosis kept me out of the military), I was able to obtain a job and work 60 hours a week, 7 days a week. So long as I was willing to work hard, follow an employer's rules, and overall not act like a jerk, I could find work.

Now, all I can get is contract work, some of it blue collar, some of it white collar. I'm not qualified for any full-time jobs, despite my fancy-sounding degree (which, BTW, I got for the sole purpose of making money, because everyone told me that a difficult degree would equal making money). If I'm unemployable, I cannot imagine what people with so-called "lesser" degrees, or no degree at all, are experiencing. And not everyone is willing to take the route I've taken, the "I'll take any kind of contract work I can find and can do" route, especially if they have children. Thank GOD I never had children.

In the world of math, we talk about something called the Pigeonhole Principle. It's very simple. It says that if you have x pigeons and y pigeonholes, and x>y, at least one pigeon will be unable to find a hole to roost in. This is what's happening in the job market. There are four to five applicants for every single job opening in America. So no matter how qualified, hard-working, dedicated or intrepid each applicant is, in every case 3-4 of them will walk away empty-handed.

BTW, I'm not the only STEM degree holder who is unemployable in IT. STEM workers with years of experience cannot find jobs. The media LIES about the so-called "shortage" of tech workers. There is no "shortage." There is an enormous surplus. "Everyone" said that STEM degrees = money, so "everyone" went out and got a STEM degree. Now we have STEM degree holders driving cabs:

http://techtalk.dice.com/t5/Tech-Nat...tiondiscussion

Granted, if I looked really, really hard, I could MAYBE find a help desk job at $9.00/hour, with no benefits, no raises and absolutely no chance of ever getting out of the phone room. With that in mind, I'm better off just doing contract work.

[RobForaker]

The focus shouldn't be on "feeding the poor." It should be on ensuring that everyone who is willing and able to work hard has the opportunity to work themselves out of poverty. But does Government to push someone to work? Do reps have the right to teach responsibility?

[laserhaas]

Proper Taxation Equals Poverty Salvation

[childOfLacroix]

The focus shouldn't be on "feeding the poor." It should be on ensuring that everyone who is willing and able to work hard has the opportunity to work themselves out of poverty. But does Government to push someone to work? Do reps have the right to teach responsibility?

The government cannot "push" anyone to work, and of course it does not have a right to "teach" responsibility or anything else. However, gov't also has no obligation--or right--to fund the lifestyles of people who plain won't work.

I've discussed before how I do not feel it would be realistic to just abruptly end all welfare programs at once, particularly those aimed at the elderly and the disabled. It is completely unrealistic to tell a feeble 90-year-old, or even a 40-year-old with, say, a traumatic brain injury, to just go get a job with full medical benefits. The programs would have to be gradually phased out, and private solutions phased in.

Welfare handed out to able-bodied citizens who could work but choose not to could be phased out far more rapidly than programs that serve truly needy populations, but it still couldn't happen overnight. It would take time for private-sector solutions to be put in place.

[max1]

I'm confused......

[childOfLacroix]

Proper Taxation Equals Poverty Salvation

I agree! And the proper tax would be $0.00, for everyone!

[RobForaker]

Poverty is a life style, section 8 is forever

[EpicWin]

Yes, jobs are part of this issue..You qualify for food stamps with a minimum wage job...Ironic?

So you are speaking from personal experience then huh?

[RobForaker]

So you are speaking from personal experience then huh?

Please keep on topic..I know many that are on food stamps

[EpicWin]

Please keep on topic..I know many that are on food stamps

I am. You were a pizza delivery driver. Thus you were making minimum wage or very close to it. The question is still relevant, you should be able to answer it. Did you personally qualify for food stamps as a minimum wage earner (or close to it) delivering pizza?

[RobForaker]

no I didn't qualify

[Chase]

What do you do for a living epic win?

[laserhaas]

It always amazes me, how the "Right" way of thinking
is to wrongly engage in ad hominem attacks
of those speaking openly on legitimate discussions.

Hate is such a detrimental thing!

[max1]

It always amazes me, how the "Right" way of thinking
is to wrongly engage in ad hominem attacks
of those speaking openly on legitimate discussions.

Hate is such a detrimental thing!

Are you kidding Laserhass? You are one of the worst posters I have ever seen when it comes to facts (you have very few) and when someone calls you out about it you resort to deflection of some sort. I will continue to respond to your posts but you as far as I am concerned have no credibility because you post way to many of your opinions claiming them to be fact.