Living the good life off of government benefits

[EdwardBaiamonte]

received over a billion $$$ in food stamps and Medicaid

too stupid of course!! You could blame 100% of the poverty in the world on corporations that don't pay enough.

See why we are positive a liberal will be slow, so very very slow!!

 

[Dragonlady]

received over a billion $$$ in food stamps and Medicaid

too stupid of course!! You could blame 100% of the poverty in the world on corporations that don't pay enough.

See why we are positive a liberal will be slow, so very very slow!!

Why exactly are you applauding corporations that don't pay enough for people to live on while making record profits? Why is this such a good thing in your eyes?

You say liberals are slow, but are you completely incapable of seeing that this corporate model cannot be sustained?

 

[Meathead]

received over a billion $$$ in food stamps and Medicaid

too stupid of course!! You could blame 100% of the poverty in the world on corporations that don't pay enough.

See why we are positive a liberal will be slow, so very very slow!!

Why exactly are you applauding corporations that don't pay enough for people to live on while making record profits? Why is this such a good thing in your eyes?

You say liberals are slow, but are you completely incapable of seeing that this corporate model cannot be sustained?

Sorry, that's just plain stupid. People have been paid what they are worth and have been so through most of human history. Slavery, feudalism and communism are history because they were invariably failures. All the idealism and whining about the injustices is not going to make any difference at all. Meritocracy is the only viable system and people are free to seek the income they believe they merit. We are no longer "owned", tied to the land or living in a "worker's paradise", and thank God for that.

 

[midcan5]

Follow up of my comments here: http://www.usmessageboard.com/curre...ff-of-government-benefits-22.html#post6889253

"The irony isn’t only that the poor are condemned for being dependent on the state while the rich are not. It’s also that the rich get so much more out of their dependence on the state than the poor. Without the support of the state, poor people’s quality of life would certainly drop, but only by degrees: their lives would go from bad to worse. Take the state’s assistance away from the rich, however, and their lives would take a serious plunge in comfort. No wonder rich people are on the whole conservative: the most ferocious defenders of the status quo are usually those who are most dependent on the system." Dependents of the State - NYTimes.com

"Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness." George Bernard Shaw
.

 

[JoeB131]

please say exactly why so we can all have a good laugh! Walmart saved the American people about $600 billion in lower prices over the last 10 years!! That are saintly!!

They are also responsible for a huge transfer of wealth from the US to China in trade deficits...

Which is a lot worse.

too stupid of course!! Ever dollar they get through Walmart or other companies must be spent in America. What did you think they did with all those dollars, burn them???

I'm sure they went to make the Walton Family obscenely Rich. That's the goal, isn't it. A few obscenely rich people and the rest of us struggling to get by. Hmmmm.... were there other countries where they did that, and how well did that work out?

France- 1787
Russia- 1917
Cuba - 1959
Iran- 1979

Yeah, I'm sure that's going to work out really well.

 

[SteadyMercury]

I'm sure they went to make the Walton Family obscenely Rich. That's the goal, isn't it. A few obscenely rich people and the rest of us struggling to get by.

You really believe anyone in this thread wants this? Which poster wants to struggle to get by?

Personally I don't give a shit about the Walton family. They can be rich, people who do simple low skill jobs can get paid crap, and I can do a harder job and make decent money. Those things can all happen at the same time, and I'm fine with it.

 

[SteadyMercury]

corporations that don't pay enough for people to live on while making record profits?

This isn't the case, there are many people who work for Walmart or McDonalds, get no government assistance, and haven't died because of their wages.

 

[JoeB131]

I'm sure they went to make the Walton Family obscenely Rich. That's the goal, isn't it. A few obscenely rich people and the rest of us struggling to get by.

You really believe anyone in this thread wants this? Which poster wants to struggle to get by?

Personally I don't give a shit about the Walton family. They can be rich, people who do simple low skill jobs can get paid crap, and I can do a harder job and make decent money. Those things can all happen at the same time, and I'm fine with it.

I don't think anyone on this thread wants this, but their dogma demands it.

I do have a problem with the Walton Family getting obscenely rich at the expense of small businesses that get slaughtered by the opening of a WalMart. I do have a problem with WalMart sucking the life out of industry by moving so much manufacturing to China, although they aren't the only offenders.

I have no problem with there being rich, but not at the expense of a declining middle class, because that's the firewall that protects us all from tyranny.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

the Walton Family getting obscenely rich at the expense of small businesses that get slaughtered by the opening of a WalMart.

well, we could pass a law that any company that figures out how to do stuff cheaper and better is illegal. Would that make the liberal fool happy!! We could still be in the horse and buggy era if liberals ruled.

 

[JoeB131]

the Walton Family getting obscenely rich at the expense of small businesses that get slaughtered by the opening of a WalMart.

well, we could pass a law that any company that figures out how to do stuff cheaper and better is illegal. Would that make the liberal fool happy!! We could still be in the horse and buggy era if liberals ruled.

That means you see WalMart as progress. I don't.

I'd prefer to go to a small store where the people working their know their shit rather than some pimply faced teenager who is working electronics today.

 

[Dragonlady]

well, we could pass a law that any company that figures out how to do stuff cheaper and better is illegal. Would that make the liberal fool happy!! We could still be in the horse and buggy era if liberals ruled.

How be a law gets passed that raises the minimum wage to a level whereby the minimum wage is raised to $10 per hour? Or one that penalizes corporations which contract push suppliers to move manufacturing for the American market offshore, which costs American jobs.

There are all sorts of things that can be done to protect American jobs. You protect corporations and their profits ahead of people. The whole point of government is to take care of its PEOPLE.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

the Walton Family getting obscenely rich at the expense of small businesses that get slaughtered by the opening of a WalMart.

well, we could pass a law that any company that figures out how to do stuff cheaper and better is illegal. Would that make the liberal fool happy!! We could still be in the horse and buggy era if liberals ruled.

That means you see WalMart as progress. I don't.

I'd prefer to go to a small store where the people working their know their shit rather than some pimply faced teenager who is working electronics today.

in the last decade Wal Mart saved America $600 billion with low prices that they could use to stimulate other businesses and the economy. Making us rich is progress!!

IF you want to a fancy electronics store with expert help capitalism provides that too.

 

[Dragonlady]

in the last decade Wal Mart saved America $600 billion with low prices that they could use to stimulate other businesses and the economy. Making us rich is progress!!

Not even close to true.

Walmart cost taxpayers over $1B in Medicaid and food stamps for their workers last year alone. Furthermore, those same workers don't earn enough to pay federal income tax, while Walmart booked their biggest profits in history. If Walmartt paid each of those workers just $100 a week more, they would not qualify for entitlements, and they'd be paying income tax. Walmart would still book a healthy profit for their investors and everyone would win.

In addition, Walmart pressures suppliers to manufacture offshore in order to reduce prices. So not only are Walmarts' employees so poorly paid they don't pay federal income taxes, but workers who lose their jobs because of Walmarts aggressive price cutting are no longer paying taxes either, nor are the stores and businesses which close because of Walmarts agressive competetive practices.

It could reasonably be argued that in lost tax revenues, payouts for entitlements food stampd and Medicaid for Walmart employees, lost taxes from businesses closed and jobs lost through "cratering" of business districts, and forcing similar employment practices across all big-box stores, Walmart COST the US economy far more than they purportedly save American shoppers.

Eddy, you're still picking up the peanuts while being trampled by the elephants, but you're still too dumb to see it. Walmart cost every taxpayer in America $2600 last year, just in entitlement spending. The lost taxes, the lost jobs, the lost business districts, that's your bonus with purchase Eddie.

There's right and there's wrong, Eddie. Greed and avarice are wrong. One of the seven deadly sins even. A buddy of mine had a great concept called "enlightened self interest", also know as "doing well by doing good".

Enlightened self interest says "If I sell my goods at a fair price, pay my workers well, and take a fair profit, my workers will take their wages and spend them in the community, and people who live and work here will have money to feed their families, and our entire community can prosper". And that's how it works - we all rise together.

But Walmart comes in and cuts prices lower than everybody else, and pays its workers the least about possible so they can't support their families without government assistance. They don't have extra money to spend in the community, and since community stores can't compete with Walmart's prices, many of the stores are closed and fewer people have money to spend. Pretty soon there are no other stores, and prices go back up to normal because there is no competition to drive out of business any more.

Unemployment is high and people are grateful to Walmart for providing jobs, but the downtown is a ghost town, and lots of people are out of work, and those who are working don't have a lot of disposable income for restaurants and movies, and other entertainment, so some of those places are closing too.

In town after town, this is what happened after Walmart moved in. It happened so often that the term "cratering" was invented for it. But you keep telling us that it's a good thing that small town business districts are disappearing, or that the majority of Walmart's 1.4 million employees don't pay income tax. Tell us how much Walmart is doing for America because from where I sit, it looks like a vampire corporation to me.

 

[dblack]

There are all sorts of things that can be done to protect American jobs. You protect corporations and their profits ahead of people. The whole point of government is to take care of its PEOPLE.

That gets right to core of the debate. The whole point of government is to protect our freedom - not to take care of us.

 

[JoeB131]

There are all sorts of things that can be done to protect American jobs. You protect corporations and their profits ahead of people. The whole point of government is to take care of its PEOPLE.

That gets right to core of the debate. The whole point of government is to protect our freedom - not to take care of us.

No, the purpose of government is to provide services and regulate commerce that we can't do ourselves.

Whenever the whacky right talks about "freedom" they usually mean the abilty of the wealthy to abuse the rest of us. Insist that we provide a safe work environment? You're violating my freedom!

 

[Grandma]

There are all sorts of things that can be done to protect American jobs. You protect corporations and their profits ahead of people. The whole point of government is to take care of its PEOPLE.

That gets right to core of the debate. The whole point of government is to protect our freedom - not to take care of us.

Not so fast, D -

...in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America...

Yes, to a degree the fed does take care of us. Or at least they're supposed to. Allowing vampire corporatists to lower the entire country's standard of living is clearly unconstitutional. Further, the righties used to love it when the neocons promised to "protect" us during the Cheney Administration.

 

[Dragonlady]

There are all sorts of things that can be done to protect American jobs. You protect corporations and their profits ahead of people. The whole point of government is to take care of its PEOPLE.

That gets right to core of the debate. The whole point of government is to protect our freedom - not to take care of us.

This whole notion that the government's job is to protect our freedom is bullshit. That's OUR job, to ensure that the government doesn't infringe on our freedoms.

When I say that government needs to take care of it's people, I don't mean to provide for them, but rather to ensure that corporation's aren't unfairly exploiting them, or abusing them. People come first, not corporations.

 

[Claudette]

Hell. I've got a friend who came here to get breast cancer treatment. If she'd waited for the Canadian system to get going she'd be dead now.

Chaoulli v. Quebec
The majority opinion stated: "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care".

. Very few Canadians come to the US for health care treatment. This is a myth that the US medical lobby perpetuates.

The nonpartisan Fraser Institute reported that 46,159 Canadians sought
medical treatment outside of Canada in 2011, as wait times increased 104
percent — more than double — compared with statistics from 1993.

Specialist physicians surveyed
across 12 specialties and 10 provinces reported an average total wait
time of 19 weeks between the time a general practitioner refers a
patient and the time a specialist provides elective treatment — the
longest they have ever recorded.

How long will it be before Obamacare evolves into this or worse? Where will the Canadians go and better yet, where will we go?

Yup. Thats pretty much what my Canadian friend told me. Waiting lists. Its the reason she was diagnosed and didn't wait to get put on any list. She came straight to the US for treatment.

It was successfull and she's alive and well in Quebec as we speak

 

[Ame®icano]

Living the good life off of government benefits...

Question: Is there a limit on how much government assistance one can get?

 

[Dragonlady]

Yup. Thats pretty much what my Canadian friend told me. Waiting lists. Its the reason she was diagnosed and didn't wait to get put on any list. She came straight to the US for treatment.

It was successfull and she's alive and well in Quebec as we speak

As was pointed out, this case was from prior to the turn of the century and much has changed since then. You still haven't said how long ago it was that your friend was diagnosed, because those waiting lists don't exist now.

You said your friend "didn't wait to get put on any list" she came right to the States, so you have no idea how long she would have waited had she remained in Canada. Sounds to me like she has more money than brains. I would have weighed my options.

When my friend's husband had a heart attack in Nashville while they were on vacation, they got him emergency treatment to stablize his condition, and then brought him back to Canada for treatment at the Schulich Heart Centre at Sunnybrook Hospital, not because they couldn't afford it or didn't have insurance, but rather because the Schulich is one of the best cardiac care units in the world and that was the best option for him.