some thoughts on the current problems

couple of thoughts

a) I think the cost of people is finally coming home. We breed more and more people for fewer and fewer jobs. Between the illegals, out-sourcing, and 'taxed to death' there just isn't much left anymore. The unemployment isn't as bad as a lot of other nations though, so that is relative.

b) we have, ever since FDR began the entitlement mentality, increased the number of parasites and leeches. Over half the population now gets their paychecks from the government. This includes your welfare recipients. If we have another depression like crash with massive unemployment, the gubbermint just does not have enuf money.
You can all produce your own scenario, but then, this may be exactly what some folk want: the excuse to remove our 'rights', suspend the Constitution and bill of rights... However this will be done to everyone since we have to be democratic about it.
Government will be unable and/or unwilling to protect its own population from the hordes of entitlement addicts.

I think we need a get what you paid system. If you haven't paid into the system, then you get squat.
Reward those who work hard and convince those who don't that they should.
This sense of self entitlement is not only fiscally bankrupting our soicety, it is also morally bankrupting our society.
So many young girls like my SIL see medicaid, rent assistance, food stamps, and WIC as their entitlment,yet they have never worked a day in their life. So how can something you did not earn be yours? Oh Yeah, the rich can afford to pay for you ( meaning all other taxpayers). My SIL actually says that she is entitled to these things, because she is an American citizen and that people like me and her brother can afford to help others because we have money.
We did not get that money by sitting at home and waiting for someone to help us.

My social security is a .38

I think that any person, chyld or otherwise, who has NEVER paid into the social security system or been the dependent of someone who has paid into the system such as in the case of a widow or kyd whose father was killed, should have their monthly checks, medicaid, welfare, etc.......stopped immediately. Then to be fair, anyone wanting special consideration for extinuating circumstances which are BEYOND THEIR CONTROL, could have a chance to be re-evaluated. I think that with the exception of only the most rare disability cases, where someone has never paid in or been the dependent of someone who has, should be systematically DENIED. All of the money which is normally just given away carte' blanche to dead beats can be used to build institutions where the indigent can be housed and work programs for those who are able to work, which I guess would be the majority, IF their checks were withheld.

Then, I think that ALL of the SS which people have paid in for their entire lives should be refunded, WITH INTEREST, immediately. This shouldn't be very difficult to finance once the welfare give aways cease and if they are paid out in reasonable increments to give the economoy and the system time to readjust. Then, those of us who have paid in can enjoy life and the others can live out their lives in an institutional setting, if they refuse to work. The ones currently working will have untold amounts of extra money to set aside for their OWN retirement, if SS and welfare taxes were no longer stolen from their paychecks. This is something I have dreamed of for quite some time, but I know it will never happen.

annie35 Wrote:
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> I think we need a get what you paid system. If you
> haven't paid into the system, then you get squat.
> Reward those who work hard and convince those who
> don't that they should.
> This sense of self entitlement is not only
> fiscally bankrupting our soicety, it is also
> morally bankrupting our society.
> So many young girls like my SIL see medicaid, rent
> assistance, food stamps, and WIC as their
> entitlment,yet they have never worked a day in
> their life. So how can something you did not earn
> be yours? Oh Yeah, the rich can afford to pay for
> you ( meaning all other taxpayers). My SIL
> actually says that she is entitled to these
> things, because she is an American citizen and
> that people like me and her brother can afford to
> help others because we have money.
> We did not get that money by sitting at home and
> waiting for someone to help us.


That is my point exactly. This entitlement mentality did not exist at the time of the Great Depression. That is why the scenario today would be entirely different of everything tumbled again and gubbermint couldn't hand out the dole the bloodbath would be unimaginable.

two cents wrote: "This entitlement mentality did not exist at the time of the Great Depression."

You are spot on, two cents. I've been reading a lot of Depression-era newspaper stories about my town recently. It's a time period that fascinates me. In my town, they had programs for unemployed people to be woodcutters around town (supervised by professional woodcutters) for people who wanted trees removed from their property. The unemployed workers got to keep the wood for burning at home. Very successful program.

My town also had roadbuilding going on using unemployed men as labor. They got a small wage--and took it with gusto for that backbreaking work, much of which was done in winter.

My town also had a MASSIVE (hundreds of acres in a town of just a few thousand) vacant lot gardening program in which landowners with unused city property donated its use as vegetable garden land. People who applied for the program were given a plot and seeds and did all the work to raise their own food. Later there were canning bees around town in which the unemployed and other volunteers put up unimaginable quantities of canned food, also for the poor.

We also had a nurse in town in the '30s who expected the recipients of her charity to maintain a clean person and home and was NOT shy about inspecting people's homes before deciding to give them food. It's said she never denied anyone food, but her strict attitude helped preserve neat home conditions, and presumably (or, hopefully), dignity among the poor, in a dire time.

All this was going on. There were some flour giveaways, but I'd say the majority of Depression-era programs in my small city were work-based--and people preferred work-based programs to just handouts. I have a lot of respect for the working poor of that era--their grit, sweat, and dignity.