Let's Hear it for American Rugged Self Reliance

[Big Fitz]

About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Needless to say, I'm both disgusted and disturbed by this situation. I know many people who are on food stamps and other government aid because they've been laid off or can't get a better paying job right now or some other temporary problem.

On the other hand, I also know of many people who are scamming the system with undeclared income and cheating the system because they have gotten away with it for so long it's not funny.

Foodstamps should help the truly needy or for very short term. The ratio should be more like 1 in 70, not 1 in 7. What happened to making do and working your butt off for what you have?

Too many sheeple have discovered the tasty teat of Uncle Sugar, and don't see anything wrong with being political livestock as long as nobody interrupts their static lives. Sure it's not much of a life, but they've no need to improve it.

Time to cut the budget, re-evaluate everyone on these programs for real need and break the cycle.

 

[Douger]

I know. You'd rather see your tax dollars go to rebuild and feed Pakistan, Afghan, Iraq and anywhere else you paid to blow up.
It's duh murkin way !
OOOPS. I forgot IsNtReal. Gawd forgiveth me-eth !

 

[PoliticalChic]

About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Needless to say, I'm both disgusted and disturbed by this situation. I know many people who are on food stamps and other government aid because they've been laid off or can't get a better paying job right now or some other temporary problem.

On the other hand, I also know of many people who are scamming the system with undeclared income and cheating the system because they have gotten away with it for so long it's not funny.

Foodstamps should help the truly needy or for very short term. The ratio should be more like 1 in 70, not 1 in 7. What happened to making do and working your butt off for what you have?

Too many sheeple have discovered the tasty teat of Uncle Sugar, and don't see anything wrong with being political livestock as long as nobody interrupts their static lives. Sure it's not much of a life, but they've no need to improve it.

Time to cut the budget, re-evaluate everyone on these programs for real need and break the cycle.

Great idea for a thread.

I'll tell you what happened to it: the 20th century, and two momentous events:
1. The Progressive Movement
2. The Student Radicals of the '60's.

"The breakup of this 300-year-old consensus on the work ethic began with the cultural protests of the 1960s, which questioned and discarded many traditional American virtues. The roots of this breakup lay in what Daniel Bell described in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism as the rejection of traditional bourgeois qualities by late-nineteenth-century European artists and intellectuals who sought “to substitute for religion or morality an aesthetic justification of life.” By the 1960s, that modernist tendency had evolved into a credo of self-fulfillment in which “nothing is forbidden, all is to be explored,” Bell wrote. Out went the Protestant ethic’s prudence, thrift, temperance, self-discipline, and deferral of gratification. Weakened along with all these virtues that made up the American work ethic was Americans’ belief in the value of work itself. Along with “turning on” and “tuning in,” the sixties protesters also “dropped out.” As the editor of the 1973 American Work Ethic noted, “affluence, hedonism and radicalism” were turning many Americans away from work and the pursuit of career advancement…"
Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic? by Steven Malanga, City Journal Summer 2009

 

[Two Thumbs]

Personal responsibilty is a code phrase for 'we hate darkies and poor people'

Forget about the pride that comes from saying; This place is mine. I bought this car. These are my cloths. My fucking heating bill is brutal.

It's funny, I called this in the 80's. The more people that go on the Fed teat, the more people will see how much more they have than someone working his ass off for a lower paying job.

Seriously. You can get a 3 bedroom home for $25/month, complete with yard, in a neighborhood where it would cost $1000 or more a month.

All you need is no job, no husband and a boy and a girl.

 

[Big Fitz]

About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Needless to say, I'm both disgusted and disturbed by this situation. I know many people who are on food stamps and other government aid because they've been laid off or can't get a better paying job right now or some other temporary problem.

On the other hand, I also know of many people who are scamming the system with undeclared income and cheating the system because they have gotten away with it for so long it's not funny.

Foodstamps should help the truly needy or for very short term. The ratio should be more like 1 in 70, not 1 in 7. What happened to making do and working your butt off for what you have?

Too many sheeple have discovered the tasty teat of Uncle Sugar, and don't see anything wrong with being political livestock as long as nobody interrupts their static lives. Sure it's not much of a life, but they've no need to improve it.

Time to cut the budget, re-evaluate everyone on these programs for real need and break the cycle.

Great idea for a thread.

I'll tell you what happened to it: the 20th century, and two momentous events:
1. The Progressive Movement
2. The Student Radicals of the '60's.

"The breakup of this 300-year-old consensus on the work ethic began with the cultural protests of the 1960s, which questioned and discarded many traditional American virtues. The roots of this breakup lay in what Daniel Bell described in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism as the rejection of traditional bourgeois qualities by late-nineteenth-century European artists and intellectuals who sought “to substitute for religion or morality an aesthetic justification of life.” By the 1960s, that modernist tendency had evolved into a credo of self-fulfillment in which “nothing is forbidden, all is to be explored,” Bell wrote. Out went the Protestant ethic’s prudence, thrift, temperance, self-discipline, and deferral of gratification. Weakened along with all these virtues that made up the American work ethic was Americans’ belief in the value of work itself. Along with “turning on” and “tuning in,” the sixties protesters also “dropped out.” As the editor of the 1973 American Work Ethic noted, “affluence, hedonism and radicalism” were turning many Americans away from work and the pursuit of career advancement…"
Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic? by Steven Malanga, City Journal Summer 2009

Yep. But I'm a firm believer in what I call the 'pendulum of history'. Political movements ebb and flow from conservative to liberal and last in about 2-4 generation cycles (between 25 and 125 years) The Progressive influence on America (and the world) was born in the French Revolution when the concept of collective rights, over individual rights were chosen. Due to the nature of the Napoleonic wars, American Civil War and the burgeoning industrial age, Progressivism did not burst again onto the scene till about 1890. This was a very strong conservative period after having a peak during the American/French Revolution ended the previous liberal epoch.

But coming with the beginning of the labor movement and anarchists of the 1890's, fed up with abuse created by uncontrolled industrialists turning nations into civic cesspools, it was a long overdue reaction and ultimately a positive for restoring liberty to society. Now that government tyranny had been removed, the tyranny of wealth was addressed. So the oppression of the 'plutocrat' was rolled back with the trusts and monopolies, trading rules and guardrails were erected to protect society from the abuse of the corporation.

Unnnnnfortunately.... the pendulum of history kept swinging from a potential nice balance into the New Deal. The driving forces of progressivism, kept on swinging, and as it grew in promenance from the 30's through the 70's, the sins of this new 'freedom' from the plutocrats devolved into dependence on those who formerly served to protect their rights. Now, instead of having the right to work, they were owed a living regardless of their own merits. This philosophy of entitlement, because we are/were a rich nation was able to get entrenched because we could out earn the costs of such a life.

Then 9/11 happened and we hit a 'hard stop' to this latest liberal era. Like the Titanic's sinking in a way signaled an end to the hegemony of the Industrialist Era of Robber Baron control, 9/11 has signaled the rapidly approaching end of the Liberal Entitlement Era. It will take a few years more of shaking and quivvering from the impact into that hard stop (potentially 10-15 years sooner than what it would have been if not for that event). This is where we sit now... the pendulum motionless for a moment at it's apogee, and now... with the collapse of the US economy in the next few weeks and months, it will begin to rapidly swing the other way.

The flower children, hippies, yippies, beatniks, organizers and radical leftists who have ushered us towards what they believed a utopia will have to see all the things they had achieved be rolled back as the rest of society says "we've gone too far, let us make some reasonable corrections." I am not saying you'll watch the reversal of civil rights, or the return of slavery like some hyperventilating moron may try to say. I'm not saying that all labor protections will go away and we'll have dirty water and air overnight.

On the contrary, we will be seeing a period of time where the cost of these reforms will be evaluated and then cut back or made appropriate so individual liberty and community responsibility can live together in more or less peaceful coexistence.

With a very tall and secure fence between them.

 

[Big Fitz]

Personal responsibilty is a code phrase for 'we hate darkies and poor people'

Forget about the pride that comes from saying; This place is mine. I bought this car. These are my cloths. My fucking heating bill is brutal.

It's funny, I called this in the 80's. The more people that go on the Fed teat, the more people will see how much more they have than someone working his ass off for a lower paying job.

Seriously. You can get a 3 bedroom home for $25/month, complete with yard, in a neighborhood where it would cost $1000 or more a month.

All you need is no job, no husband and a boy and a girl.

Won't be able to keep that up for much longer. It's not politics anymore, it's economics, and deadbeats get their funds cut first.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Personal responsibilty is a code phrase for 'we hate darkies and poor people'

Forget about the pride that comes from saying; This place is mine. I bought this car. These are my cloths. My fucking heating bill is brutal.

It's funny, I called this in the 80's. The more people that go on the Fed teat, the more people will see how much more they have than someone working his ass off for a lower paying job.

Seriously. You can get a 3 bedroom home for $25/month, complete with yard, in a neighborhood where it would cost $1000 or more a month.

All you need is no job, no husband and a boy and a girl.

Won't be able to keep that up for much longer. It's not politics anymore, it's economics, and deadbeats get their funds cut first.

Listening to the left. These entitlements will stay untill there is an actual collapse, which, of course, will 'need' the Fed to step in and 'fix'.

I don't see anything seriously changing in a very long time

 

[Bern80]

I know. You'd rather see your tax dollars go to rebuild and feed Pakistan, Afghan, Iraq and anywhere else you paid to blow up.
It's duh murkin way !
OOOPS. I forgot IsNtReal. Gawd forgiveth me-eth !

Gotta love the rebuttals of the left. They can't actually defend these dead beats so they resort to changing the subject. And a strawman one at that.

 

[PoliticalChic]

About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Needless to say, I'm both disgusted and disturbed by this situation. I know many people who are on food stamps and other government aid because they've been laid off or can't get a better paying job right now or some other temporary problem.

On the other hand, I also know of many people who are scamming the system with undeclared income and cheating the system because they have gotten away with it for so long it's not funny.

Foodstamps should help the truly needy or for very short term. The ratio should be more like 1 in 70, not 1 in 7. What happened to making do and working your butt off for what you have?

Too many sheeple have discovered the tasty teat of Uncle Sugar, and don't see anything wrong with being political livestock as long as nobody interrupts their static lives. Sure it's not much of a life, but they've no need to improve it.

Time to cut the budget, re-evaluate everyone on these programs for real need and break the cycle.

Great idea for a thread.

I'll tell you what happened to it: the 20th century, and two momentous events:
1. The Progressive Movement
2. The Student Radicals of the '60's.

"The breakup of this 300-year-old consensus on the work ethic began with the cultural protests of the 1960s, which questioned and discarded many traditional American virtues. The roots of this breakup lay in what Daniel Bell described in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism as the rejection of traditional bourgeois qualities by late-nineteenth-century European artists and intellectuals who sought “to substitute for religion or morality an aesthetic justification of life.” By the 1960s, that modernist tendency had evolved into a credo of self-fulfillment in which “nothing is forbidden, all is to be explored,” Bell wrote. Out went the Protestant ethic’s prudence, thrift, temperance, self-discipline, and deferral of gratification. Weakened along with all these virtues that made up the American work ethic was Americans’ belief in the value of work itself. Along with “turning on” and “tuning in,” the sixties protesters also “dropped out.” As the editor of the 1973 American Work Ethic noted, “affluence, hedonism and radicalism” were turning many Americans away from work and the pursuit of career advancement…"
Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic? by Steven Malanga, City Journal Summer 2009

Yep. But I'm a firm believer in what I call the 'pendulum of history'. Political movements ebb and flow from conservative to liberal and last in about 2-4 generation cycles (between 25 and 125 years) The Progressive influence on America (and the world) was born in the French Revolution when the concept of collective rights, over individual rights were chosen. Due to the nature of the Napoleonic wars, American Civil War and the burgeoning industrial age, Progressivism did not burst again onto the scene till about 1890. This was a very strong conservative period after having a peak during the American/French Revolution ended the previous liberal epoch.

But coming with the beginning of the labor movement and anarchists of the 1890's, fed up with abuse created by uncontrolled industrialists turning nations into civic cesspools, it was a long overdue reaction and ultimately a positive for restoring liberty to society. Now that government tyranny had been removed, the tyranny of wealth was addressed. So the oppression of the 'plutocrat' was rolled back with the trusts and monopolies, trading rules and guardrails were erected to protect society from the abuse of the corporation.

Unnnnnfortunately.... the pendulum of history kept swinging from a potential nice balance into the New Deal. The driving forces of progressivism, kept on swinging, and as it grew in promenance from the 30's through the 70's, the sins of this new 'freedom' from the plutocrats devolved into dependence on those who formerly served to protect their rights. Now, instead of having the right to work, they were owed a living regardless of their own merits. This philosophy of entitlement, because we are/were a rich nation was able to get entrenched because we could out earn the costs of such a life.

Then 9/11 happened and we hit a 'hard stop' to this latest liberal era. Like the Titanic's sinking in a way signaled an end to the hegemony of the Industrialist Era of Robber Baron control, 9/11 has signaled the rapidly approaching end of the Liberal Entitlement Era. It will take a few years more of shaking and quivvering from the impact into that hard stop (potentially 10-15 years sooner than what it would have been if not for that event). This is where we sit now... the pendulum motionless for a moment at it's apogee, and now... with the collapse of the US economy in the next few weeks and months, it will begin to rapidly swing the other way.

The flower children, hippies, yippies, beatniks, organizers and radical leftists who have ushered us towards what they believed a utopia will have to see all the things they had achieved be rolled back as the rest of society says "we've gone too far, let us make some reasonable corrections." I am not saying you'll watch the reversal of civil rights, or the return of slavery like some hyperventilating moron may try to say. I'm not saying that all labor protections will go away and we'll have dirty water and air overnight.

On the contrary, we will be seeing a period of time where the cost of these reforms will be evaluated and then cut back or made appropriate so individual liberty and community responsibility can live together in more or less peaceful coexistence.

With a very tall and secure fence between them.

Excellent post, Fitzy.

Let me make two suggestions.

The pendulum thing...this is what miltates against the return to ...shall we call them more 'rational' times.

1. Envy. Far too many folks judge what they have not in terms of what they have, but in terms of what they see someone else have. And this envy has become more than individual, it has become systemic. It can be seen in the ascendency of the Democrat Party and the progressive income tax....increases even when it can be shown that high marginal rates bring in less revenue. I'm sure you've see the writing of Alexander Tytler.

a. Sociologist Helmut Schoeck’s observation: “Since the end of the Second World War, however, a new ‘ethic’ has come into being, according to which the envious man is perfectly acceptable. Progressively fewer individuals and groups are ashamed of their envy, but instead make out that its existence in their temperaments axiomatically proves the existence of ‘social injustice,’ which must be eliminated for their benefit.” Helmut Schoeck, “Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior,” p. 179

2. Sadly, in society, as in economics, Gresham's Law applies.

a. Gresham's law is an economic principle "which states that when government compulsorily overvalues one money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation."[1] It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good", ...
Gresham's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

b. So it is with values, as well.

 

[Two Thumbs]

I know. You'd rather see your tax dollars go to rebuild and feed Pakistan, Afghan, Iraq and anywhere else you paid to blow up.
It's duh murkin way !
OOOPS. I forgot IsNtReal. Gawd forgiveth me-eth !

Gotta love the rebuttals of the left. They can't actually defend these dead beats so they resort to changing the subject. And a strawman one at that.

Jokes on you!

Most of us just scroll over his non-sensical ramblings.

 

[Big Fitz]

Great idea for a thread.

I'll tell you what happened to it: the 20th century, and two momentous events:
1. The Progressive Movement
2. The Student Radicals of the '60's.

"The breakup of this 300-year-old consensus on the work ethic began with the cultural protests of the 1960s, which questioned and discarded many traditional American virtues. The roots of this breakup lay in what Daniel Bell described in The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism as the rejection of traditional bourgeois qualities by late-nineteenth-century European artists and intellectuals who sought “to substitute for religion or morality an aesthetic justification of life.” By the 1960s, that modernist tendency had evolved into a credo of self-fulfillment in which “nothing is forbidden, all is to be explored,” Bell wrote. Out went the Protestant ethic’s prudence, thrift, temperance, self-discipline, and deferral of gratification. Weakened along with all these virtues that made up the American work ethic was Americans’ belief in the value of work itself. Along with “turning on” and “tuning in,” the sixties protesters also “dropped out.” As the editor of the 1973 American Work Ethic noted, “affluence, hedonism and radicalism” were turning many Americans away from work and the pursuit of career advancement…"
Whatever Happened to the Work Ethic? by Steven Malanga, City Journal Summer 2009

Yep. But I'm a firm believer in what I call the 'pendulum of history'. Political movements ebb and flow from conservative to liberal and last in about 2-4 generation cycles (between 25 and 125 years) The Progressive influence on America (and the world) was born in the French Revolution when the concept of collective rights, over individual rights were chosen. Due to the nature of the Napoleonic wars, American Civil War and the burgeoning industrial age, Progressivism did not burst again onto the scene till about 1890. This was a very strong conservative period after having a peak during the American/French Revolution ended the previous liberal epoch.

But coming with the beginning of the labor movement and anarchists of the 1890's, fed up with abuse created by uncontrolled industrialists turning nations into civic cesspools, it was a long overdue reaction and ultimately a positive for restoring liberty to society. Now that government tyranny had been removed, the tyranny of wealth was addressed. So the oppression of the 'plutocrat' was rolled back with the trusts and monopolies, trading rules and guardrails were erected to protect society from the abuse of the corporation.

Unnnnnfortunately.... the pendulum of history kept swinging from a potential nice balance into the New Deal. The driving forces of progressivism, kept on swinging, and as it grew in promenance from the 30's through the 70's, the sins of this new 'freedom' from the plutocrats devolved into dependence on those who formerly served to protect their rights. Now, instead of having the right to work, they were owed a living regardless of their own merits. This philosophy of entitlement, because we are/were a rich nation was able to get entrenched because we could out earn the costs of such a life.

Then 9/11 happened and we hit a 'hard stop' to this latest liberal era. Like the Titanic's sinking in a way signaled an end to the hegemony of the Industrialist Era of Robber Baron control, 9/11 has signaled the rapidly approaching end of the Liberal Entitlement Era. It will take a few years more of shaking and quivvering from the impact into that hard stop (potentially 10-15 years sooner than what it would have been if not for that event). This is where we sit now... the pendulum motionless for a moment at it's apogee, and now... with the collapse of the US economy in the next few weeks and months, it will begin to rapidly swing the other way.

The flower children, hippies, yippies, beatniks, organizers and radical leftists who have ushered us towards what they believed a utopia will have to see all the things they had achieved be rolled back as the rest of society says "we've gone too far, let us make some reasonable corrections." I am not saying you'll watch the reversal of civil rights, or the return of slavery like some hyperventilating moron may try to say. I'm not saying that all labor protections will go away and we'll have dirty water and air overnight.

On the contrary, we will be seeing a period of time where the cost of these reforms will be evaluated and then cut back or made appropriate so individual liberty and community responsibility can live together in more or less peaceful coexistence.

With a very tall and secure fence between them.

Excellent post, Fitzy.

Let me make two suggestions.

The pendulum thing...this is what miltates against the return to ...shall we call them more 'rational' times.

1. Envy. Far too many folks judge what they have not in terms of what they have, but in terms of what they see someone else have. And this envy has become more than individual, it has become systemic. It can be seen in the ascendency of the Democrat Party and the progressive income tax....increases even when it can be shown that high marginal rates bring in less revenue. I'm sure you've see the writing of Alexander Tytler.

a. Sociologist Helmut Schoeck’s observation: “Since the end of the Second World War, however, a new ‘ethic’ has come into being, according to which the envious man is perfectly acceptable. Progressively fewer individuals and groups are ashamed of their envy, but instead make out that its existence in their temperaments axiomatically proves the existence of ‘social injustice,’ which must be eliminated for their benefit.” Helmut Schoeck, “Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior,” p. 179

2. Sadly, in society, as in economics, Gresham's Law applies.

a. Gresham's law is an economic principle "which states that when government compulsorily overvalues one money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation."[1] It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good", ...
Gresham's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

b. So it is with values, as well.

You raise some very interesting points. I'm not quite sure I agree 100% with your points, but you do give good reason why it's so damn hard to get rid of the problem.

Maybe Gresham's law is more of a 'reinforcing agent' to bad behavior. The reason I say this is that mankind has suffered worse behavior being entrenched for long periods of time as well, but good behavior always returns for a season. I do believe that it is because the children and grand children who are subjected to the worst of this behavior rebel against it. I guess an example would be addiction in the family. After suffering a lifetime of ills at it's hands, the child either will succumb or rebel against it, and become a crusader against that type of behavior. The crusader is often much more long lived and vocal about the ills they suffered through than those who just continue perpetrating it.

Our children (we Gen Xers, as well as grandchildren are going to suffer because of the excesses of their grand and great grandparents. Many of our generation is perpetuating the same behavior, but a growing number is pissed off at what they see as the wrong in the world. It's one trait that all youth has: the demand for ideological purity. Many will rebel against the values of their parents and do something that is different and irritating to their elders. Since so many have followed the moral morass of the boomers in our generation, but some had started rebelling against it, our children and grand children will continue rebelling against it. As the costs of the failures of that moral culture become more and more apparent, the transfer to a new moral civic status will increase.

 

[Big Fitz]

I know. You'd rather see your tax dollars go to rebuild and feed Pakistan, Afghan, Iraq and anywhere else you paid to blow up.
It's duh murkin way !
OOOPS. I forgot IsNtReal. Gawd forgiveth me-eth !

Gotta love the rebuttals of the left. They can't actually defend these dead beats so they resort to changing the subject. And a strawman one at that.

Jokes on you!

Most of us just scroll over his non-sensical ramblings.

I've had that terminal idiot on ignore for months now.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Gotta love the rebuttals of the left. They can't actually defend these dead beats so they resort to changing the subject. And a strawman one at that.

Jokes on you!

Most of us just scroll over his non-sensical ramblings.

I've had that terminal idiot on ignore for months now.

I just put him on it.

Became to much of a chore to figure out what he was saying, and then wondering if he was having the same conversation as I was.

 

[Big Fitz]

But once again, I've created a thread so packed with awesomeness nobody's disagreeing with it.

 

[uscitizen]

Work ethics and loyalty to an employer has been lost thru not in a small part by the way employers treated their employees.
Treat someone as a disposable item and they will not respect you..

As the article stated other factors are in play as well though.

 

[AVG-JOE]

About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Needless to say, I'm both disgusted and disturbed by this situation. I know many people who are on food stamps and other government aid because they've been laid off or can't get a better paying job right now or some other temporary problem.

On the other hand, I also know of many people who are scamming the system with undeclared income and cheating the system because they have gotten away with it for so long it's not funny.

Foodstamps should help the truly needy or for very short term. The ratio should be more like 1 in 70, not 1 in 7. What happened to making do and working your butt off for what you have?

Too many sheeple have discovered the tasty teat of Uncle Sugar, and don't see anything wrong with being political livestock as long as nobody interrupts their static lives. Sure it's not much of a life, but they've no need to improve it.

Time to cut the budget, re-evaluate everyone on these programs for real need and break the cycle.

One of the reasons Americans aren't quite as 'self reliant' as they were 50 years ago is the proliferation of laws like the one that says "No, you CAN'T open a bar in your garage when you get laid off."

 

[bambu]

What if the 'truly needy' require help for longer than a short term?

Cheap-labor immigrants are stealing jobs.

Most people with no job are truly needy.
Homeless [incl war veterans] people are everywhere.

 

[Old Rocks]

About 1 in 7 in U.S. Receive Food Stamps - Real Time Economics - WSJ

Needless to say, I'm both disgusted and disturbed by this situation. I know many people who are on food stamps and other government aid because they've been laid off or can't get a better paying job right now or some other temporary problem.

On the other hand, I also know of many people who are scamming the system with undeclared income and cheating the system because they have gotten away with it for so long it's not funny.

Foodstamps should help the truly needy or for very short term. The ratio should be more like 1 in 70, not 1 in 7. What happened to making do and working your butt off for what you have?

Too many sheeple have discovered the tasty teat of Uncle Sugar, and don't see anything wrong with being political livestock as long as nobody interrupts their static lives. Sure it's not much of a life, but they've no need to improve it.

Time to cut the budget, re-evaluate everyone on these programs for real need and break the cycle.

What happened was that we had a Republican Administration from 2001 to 2009. One which believed that you could fight two wars, and cut taxes at the same time.

 

[Big Fitz]

What if the 'truly needy' require help for longer than a short term?

Cheap-labor immigrants are stealing jobs.

Most people with no job are truly needy.
Homeless [incl war veterans] people are everywhere.

Don't worry about it. This problem will self correct when that cheap labor market overseas has no more America to buy what they are making cheaply.

This is why globalist views based on consumer credit will fail ultimately. A rich nation has high 'civilization costs'. They want better roads and neighborhoods. They pass laws that have a hidden dollar value that if they are rich and prosperous enough, they can support. BUT, when you get so many 'civilization costs' that it is cheaper to work elsewhere and export back into the rich consumer nation, the investors profit, but the nation gets poorer as people are put out of work. This shrinks the investor class, and ultimately, shrinks the wealth of the nation. Now, just like rot hollows out a tree, this cheap offshore labor and manufacturing hollow out a nation's stability. Then, all it takes is one bad storm, and a tree that on the outside, may look so healthy, will snap in half and die when a strong enough wind hits it.

I'm not saying we need to go back to total protectionism, but we do need to seriously evaluate our cultural civilization costs. All the zoning laws, and quality of life laws, and environmental protection laws and ordinances and litigious costs that make up our society have to be paid for. If no one is left here to pay for them, because all the good paying work can be off shored to places that have nowhere NEAR the same costs to their civilization, and they can pass the cheap goods savings on to us... well there comes a time when nobody has anything left to spend, because they're all out of cash.

Ultimately, the nation is brought down to the level of the producers way of life, either through poverty or reduced laws and regulations, then when parity is reached (oh boy! Now we're just like India!) we can start building in America again and producing again because it will save on shipping. Why else do Japanese car makers manufacture cars in the US. Assemble really... the parts are made in Japan? Because it's cheaper and they dodge tariffs.

The point is, that you can't have free trade with nations that do not share a similar burden of 'civilization costs' and quality of life for their citizens. Otherwise, that poorer nation, although you're able to be flooded with cheap goods, ultimately, it will drag you down to the level they rise to... and that's never equal to your previous status.

So I'd love to see some serious consideration in creating 'first world free trade'. You know, nations that are on par with us for quality of life, and costs to maintain it. That'd be most of Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of far western Asia and Israel. Everyone else should face a tariff commiserate with the lesser costs their nation has for quality of life and costs to maintain it. This should be particularly tough for nations engaged in economic warfare with us by artificially subsidizing or protecting their industries to harm ours. Tax those products equal to the subsidy their nation is giving those industries and watch how fast people turn to other sources.

Not an easy solution, and dangerous in regards that all products made in those nations would rise for consumers in the US, but US industry would return if there was marginal cost savings. Of course, this is also a big government solution (which makes me even more uncomfortable), but then again... till the income tax became the primary funder of government, the fed paid for itself almost exclusively through excise taxes and tariffs. Maybe we should look at that again. It's a consumption tax after all.

 

[AllieBaba]

Jokes on you!

Most of us just scroll over his non-sensical ramblings.

I've had that terminal idiot on ignore for months now.

I just put him on it.

Became to much of a chore to figure out what he was saying, and then wondering if he was having the same conversation as I was.

That's the lefty way.