Welfare Programs Cause Misery

[PoliticalChic]

1. Entrepreneurs of all types rate their well-being higher than any other professional group in America. The Self-Employed Are the Happiest - NYTimes.com

2. Think it’s because they’re making 'beaucoup bucks'? Wrong. Small business owners make 19% less than government managers. Salary Calculators - CBsalary

a. Comparing Federal and Private Sector Compensation Comparing Federal and Private Sector Compensation - Economics - AEI

b. “WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Nearly half of self-employed Americans (49%) report working more than 44 hours in a typical work week, compared to 39% of American workers overall, 38% in government and in private business, …” Self-Employed Workers Clock the Most Hours Each Week

Well, then.....why do they feel better than others???




3 .So…income and happiness? Data taken over several decades indicates that people have gotten a lot richer….but not a lot happier. In 1972, about 30% of Americans reported that they were ‘very happy.’ The average American earned about $25,000 (2004 dollars), and by 2004 the average income had increased to $38,000- a 50% increase in real income. All income groups, from rich to poor, saw substantial income increases. Yet the percentage of very happy Americans remained virtually the same, at 31%.
Data Portals


a. How about lottery winners….initial happiness didn’t last! “As predicted, lottery winners were not happier than controls and took significantly less pleasure from a series of mundane events. “Lottery winners and accident victims: is ... [J Pers Soc Psychol. 1978] - PubMed - NCBI




5. So….if it’s not money….what is it people desire? The answer is earned success....the ability to create value with your life, or in the lives of others. Term ‘profit’ means different things to different people.





6.Then, there is the obverse of “earned success”…the result of the welfare system: “learned helplessness.” If rewards and punishments in life are note tied to merit, people simply give up and stop trying to succeed. Learned Helplessness (What It Is and Why It Happens)


The government conducted a study, 1971-1978 known as the Seattle-Denver Income Maintenance Experiment, or SIME-DIME, in which low income families were give a guaranteed income, a welfare package with everything liberal policy makers could hope for. Result: for every dollar of extra welfare given, low income recipients reduced their labor by 80 cents. http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/bitstreams/12794.pdf
a. Further results: dissolution of families: “This conclusion was unambiguously unfavorable to advocates of a negative income tax that would cover married couples, for two important reasons. First, increased
marital breakups among the poor would increase the numbers on
welfare and the amount of transfer payments, principally because the
separated wife and children would receive higher transfer payments.
Second, marital dissolutions and the usual accompanying absence of
fathers from households with children are generally considered unfavorable outcomes regardless of whether or not the welfare rolls increase.” http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/conf/conf30/conf30c.pdf

c. “When families received guaranteed income at 90% of the poverty level, there was a 43% increase in black family dissolution and a 63% increase in white family dissolution. At 125% of the poverty levels, dissolutions were 75% and 40%.” Robert B. Carleson, “Government Is The Problem,” p. 57.




7. Just as earned success brings happiness, learned helplessness brings unhappiness. “We found that even when good things occurred that weren’t earned, like nickels coming out of slot machines, it did not increase people’s well-being,” he said. “It produced helplessness. People gave up and became passive.” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17tierney.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all



As this knowledge is out there.....how come the Left pushes for more and more welfare and give-aways?
Clearly....not to help recipients.....



...so, guess who they're really attempting to help.

 

[PoliticalChic]

1. What does this mean for the welfare state? It means that if government gives people rewards that did not earn- welfare checks, make-work jobs, etc.- it will not improve their well being. No, it will make them helpless! And people know this! This is why people go into such contortions to act as if unearned rewards from government were actually earned.
Arthur Brooks, "The Road to Freedom"

a. Tell any retiree that senior citizens are taking more out of Social Security than they ever put in, and see what happens.



2 .For most people, work is the source of earned success. Philosopher Erich Fromm wrote that “only in being productively active can man make sense of his life.” But, choosing the activity that matches one’s skills and passions is part of it, as well. And that is the magic of the free enterprise system. The opposite can be found in any Progressive initiative: “The natural propensity of Progressives to limit individual prerogatives was manifest as early as 1993, with the Clinton Health Security Act, affectionately known as Hillarycare….striking in the detailed and minute control it assumed over each and every conceivable aspect of American healthcare.” Limiting Individual Prerogatives in a Progressive Healthcare System

 

[PoliticalChic]

It's not about money.


In his book, “Coming Apart,” Charles Murray says, after careful consideration, it seems that there are just four domains through which humans achieve deep satisfaction, happiness: family, vocation, community and faith. Money? Not so much.

a. Family happiness is the same as a happy marriage; 58% of those in a happy marriage said their lives were very happy. This compares with 8% who said their marriages were ‘not too happy.’

b. Vocation is more than job. It can be what one does, or one’s cause…Homemakers were the highest proportion of people with high work satisfaction, and were very happy.

c. Faith. None of the data is as dispositive as this. The more attached to faith, as defined by belief and how many services one attend, the more self-described as ‘very happy’ with life. More than once a week attendance, 49% very happy; down to never attends, 23% very happy.

d. Community. The survey measures everything from levels of giving blood, to hanging out with friends, to participating in various groups and associations, to levels of trust, to participation in group arts and group sports, to the diversity of our friendship patterns. High levels of community involvement were consistently associated with “very happy.”

 

[Freemason9]

That's alot of preaching there, Political Chick.

There has been a bunch of serious research regarding entrepreneurs, and much of that data would probably surprise you. One thing that surveys have uncovered is that entrepreneurs are more populated by minority groups that "normal" sampling would predict; as demographic groups, blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be entrepreneurs that are whites.

Why is this true? I know the reason, but I'll wait and see if you know.

FWIW, you would call me a "liberal." I suppose I am, but I do not like the American "welfare" system. It is a system that merely provides sustanance to people; there is no opportunity, little hope, and no security. It prevents utter starvation and rioting, and I suppose that is the intention.

A real program of value would eradicate the underclass structure that typifies America. It would work to reduce poverty. Such a program, however, would require investment and participation by corporations and aristocrats.

 

[Freemason9]

It's not about money.


In his book, “Coming Apart,” Charles Murray says, after careful consideration, it seems that there are just four domains through which humans achieve deep satisfaction, happiness: family, vocation, community and faith. Money? Not so much.

a. Family happiness is the same as a happy marriage; 58% of those in a happy marriage said their lives were very happy. This compares with 8% who said their marriages were ‘not too happy.’

b. Vocation is more than job. It can be what one does, or one’s cause…Homemakers were the highest proportion of people with high work satisfaction, and were very happy.

c. Faith. None of the data is as dispositive as this. The more attached to faith, as defined by belief and how many services one attend, the more self-described as ‘very happy’ with life. More than once a week attendance, 49% very happy; down to never attends, 23% very happy.

d. Community. The survey measures everything from levels of giving blood, to hanging out with friends, to participating in various groups and associations, to levels of trust, to participation in group arts and group sports, to the diversity of our friendship patterns. High levels of community involvement were consistently associated with “very happy.”

Amazingly, we agree again. This is not a political issue, though, and you should know that "faith" does not automatically imply "Christianity." I am probably more Buddhist than Christian, for example.

 

[High_Gravity]

I have to agree, its easy to get that check but it comes with all types of strings. The man puts his hand in your pocket and owns you, I could never live like that, and theres no guarantee that one day they won't just turn off the tap. We are fucking broke.

 

[High_Gravity]

At the same time, money makes me happy. I like it I love it I want more of it.

 

[Clifford]

“The organic tendency of Progressives to restrict personal prerogatives was reveal as beginning as 1993, with the Clinton Wellness Protection Act, passionately known as Hillarycare….striking in the specific and instant management it believed over each and every possible element of United states medical care.”

 

[PoliticalChic]

“The organic tendency of Progressives to restrict personal prerogatives was reveal as beginning as 1993, with the Clinton Wellness Protection Act, passionately known as Hillarycare….striking in the specific and instant management it believed over each and every possible element of United states medical care.”

"And what would the alternative look like? Decentralized administration, local self-government, civic associations, an unfettered press, Biblical religion, and the marital solidarity characteristic of Jacksonian America, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, put into practical form through the Constitution, and given an authoritative interpretation in ‘The Federalist.’"

https://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/digital/rahe/default.asp

 

[PoliticalChic]

It's not about money.


In his book, “Coming Apart,” Charles Murray says, after careful consideration, it seems that there are just four domains through which humans achieve deep satisfaction, happiness: family, vocation, community and faith. Money? Not so much.

a. Family happiness is the same as a happy marriage; 58% of those in a happy marriage said their lives were very happy. This compares with 8% who said their marriages were ‘not too happy.’

b. Vocation is more than job. It can be what one does, or one’s cause…Homemakers were the highest proportion of people with high work satisfaction, and were very happy.

c. Faith. None of the data is as dispositive as this. The more attached to faith, as defined by belief and how many services one attend, the more self-described as ‘very happy’ with life. More than once a week attendance, 49% very happy; down to never attends, 23% very happy.

d. Community. The survey measures everything from levels of giving blood, to hanging out with friends, to participating in various groups and associations, to levels of trust, to participation in group arts and group sports, to the diversity of our friendship patterns. High levels of community involvement were consistently associated with “very happy.”

Amazingly, we agree again. This is not a political issue, though, and you should know that "faith" does not automatically imply "Christianity." I am probably more Buddhist than Christian, for example.

See if we agree on this perception, as well, Freetheft.....

I've found that the folks who endorse a kind of elitist, 'Boutique Outlook,' to coin a phrase...one that stresses economic communism, and Buddhist 'religion,' are...what's the right term.....oh, yes....'pretenders.'

Don't you agree?