What would you do with the low income of this nation?

[DuckLady]

Quote:
This is what gets posts locked. Just a friendly FYI.

 

[DuckLady]

The programs to help those less fortunate are great and very much needed.
However, there needs to be limits and paybacks. Those moms on welfare could pay back by going to the parks where their kids play and clean up.

While the kids are in school, they should be training for a job or trade.
Those who are receiving aid can help others by helping in shelters or food kitchens. In fact, that should be a given for a period of time during and after the aid is given.

Then when the time limit is up, the case can be reviewed and either stopped because the recipient is ready to go to work or if a degree or end of training is in sight, extend a bit.

 

[cjeanean]

the grossly overweight I don't have a problem with, because for all I know they could have a medical/mental problem that is affecting them. Cell phone/internet using? Don't have a problem with that, either. Cell phones and the internet can be very important tools in today's world, and a lot of times cells are cheaper than land lines. Internet can be used for online school, so I'm not gonna judge whether cells or the internet are necessary or not. BUT I do have a major problem with people using their gov't money for alcohol. That's just BS. Alcohol is NOT cheap, especially when you have to have a 12pk every day. NOT AT ALL. Those are people that I believe should not be granted government money, and for those who use that same money for drugs as well.....I have nothing nice to say about them. Being one of the poor people I have been 'privileged' to witness dozens of these people. I can't stand them, especially when their children, their tiny little ones, are watching all of it happen. Please understand that I do care about these people, but I can't stand seeing what they do. I hate it.

I don't know where to start with the poor of the nation, other than making it possible for them to have more money and more affordable housing and food. Those two things, along with utilities, kill us each month, and I know a lot of the alcohol slamming druggie single mothers and third class families think, Oh well, I don't have even near enough for this bill, may as well buy some booze. I heard that a lot. They'd given up, despaired, and so turned to other things for comfort. I'm probably talking about something that's way over my head, and I may get some "That's not possible" comments, but whatever. Just an idea....

 

[Sandrachx]

Quote:
you didn't say anything wrong - shouldn't take others not wanting to go there as a personal affront. others don't want to say anything negative, so they follow their mother's counsel.

It's simple--help them, don't help them. If you chose to help them, how would be the best way. If you want them to starve, stay off the post or say it and take the abuse like an adult.

Wow! - - - i can see why people just browse forums. 1. find a church with a food pantry; 2. purchase a little extra at the grocery store because they cannot take canned items; 3. donate extra to food pantry; 4. take extra produce from garden to food bank or community center in town; 5. anonymously adopt a family, if you know one; 6. if you can, pay on a utility bill; 7. NEVER give cash - rather, assist with a tangible need.

 

[happyhen]

To paraphrase, give a man a fish and he has a meal, teach a man to fish and he can feed many.

 

[Rosalind]

That's a big question. I don't know if I am able to tackle it in a BB post.

I look at it this way: If I wish to live in a socially, economically, and politically stable society, then we need to have minimal wealth disparities. I don't want to live in Zimbabwe, Congo, Russia, etc. because those places are real plutocracies. People get killed there, for no more reason than they annoyed a rich person who could afford to have them killed. I don't want to live in a feudal society, and I don't want to live in 1840s southern US--again, because those societies were dangerous, and people got killed. Getting killed, as Coca-Cola, Shell Oil and other companies that operate in socioeconomically unstable parts of the world will tell you, is bad for business.

Public companies do not operate long term. Note: here I am distinguishing between privately owned companies, which can do what they please, and stockholder-owned companies. They're quite different. It is their executives' duty to create as much short-term profit as possible. If they have a choice between doing something long-term that costs short-term money, which may or may not pay off depending on how their competitors/gov't react, and doing something which may be bad for their operations long term but gets them $$$ short term, then they MUST choose the short term thing. So there has to be some regulatory balance to keep them focused on the long term. Companies, especially public companies, are a fictional construct which we agree exists for the benefit of society. When they stop benefiting society, we the public have no reason to continue to agree to that fiction.

I can see problems with the current economic models that have apparently failed Wall Street, starting with, "if you can't do math, you need to find a job that doesn't involve numbers." Personally I would like to see much of the economic modeling ripped apart and re-built using Bayesian stats and HMMs or neural nets to account for the "stuff we don't know" and iteratively self-correcting based on real-time data. And then see where that leads the theory. As it stands, most of economics looks like a pile of horse puckey to me.

One thing we desperately need to focus on is innovation, and innovation comes from education. Our education system in this country is terrible. No, not everyone can have a PhD in theoretical physics, but it's the innovators that create jobs and create products and move society forward--as in, out of the polluted, oil-dependent, ailing mess we're in. So I would pour a lot of money into education and SBIR-type grants. And I'd probably seize it from the assets of the robber barons, because if your company tanks so badly that the taxpayers have to bail your behind out, then you should be in jail breaking rocks for the sin of defrauding your investors, not on a spa vacation. The more educated people are, the healthier they are, too.

It's hard to break the cycle of poverty, but education really helps.

I am not a big fan of re-inventing the wheel. I guess I would survey countries that do seem to be getting along well, and analyze what they are doing that works. Iceland, Norway and Denmark seem to do OK. Low unemployment, good quality of life.

 

[seedcorn]

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Nice saying but how do you advise us (USA) to do it?

terrelacy, sounds like our current system that we all hate.

A word of warning, those of us getting close to "retirement" age, our retirement $$ has been taken, because of age, health, insurance, we are now the unemployable--friend of mine had to "prove himself" for 3 years until they would hire him full time. Welcome to golden years.

 

[key west chick]

Several years ago we filed bankruptcy.WE made some bad choices. No one to blame but us.We lost our business and our house. DH and I were without health insurance for 2 years before he was employed and offered insurance. We did get gov. assistance for our kids. We hated it but felt our kids needed insurance. The world is becoming a hard, bad place to live in. I watch those commercials on tv about the starving kids in 3rd world countries. While I would love to help them, what does giving them food do? It helps them grow up and have more poverty stricken kids. Like someone said, knowledge is power.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

The main problem is the "flattening" of the global economy. It is so easy to outsource now due to technology. As a result, there are fewer jobs for people without a college education. The best-paying jobs are in science, mathematics, and technology.

To create more jobs and opportunities for people without much education, I would make it illegal to outsource factory and help center jobs to other countries. Companies would have to build cars, etc. with 90% parts made in the USA. This would be heavily regulated.

I would also offer tax breaks to foreign companies who wanted to start businesses or factories here in the U.S.

Welfare would require documentation monthly that a person was employed. Welfare would not be provided to anyone who wasn't working. There would be special community service programs to provide employment for people who couldn't work a regular job; everyone who was able would have to contribute something, unless they were disabled in some extremely severe way (and this would require exemption via medical documentation).

 

[seedcorn]

I like this........want to run for President? I'll vote for you. In fact for the first time, I'd donate $$ to your election.