Wealth Inequality Chart (1 Viewer)

[V Chip]

No one is willing to prove or disprove the abuse.

I have posted here before a few studies on the efficiency of welfare programs or SNAP or others.

How much is Welfare Fraud Costing Us? (Welfare Reform Part 12) - It's Our America

*In Hard Times, Americans Blame The Poor** : Information Clearing House -* ICH

Welfare and Benefit Fraud Statistics Show a Disturbing Pattern - Get Out of Debt Guy

So where is there proof otherwise? Besides anecdotal reports, where are studies that show lots of fraud -- especially the kinds always talked about with the lazy ne'er-do-wells (the most common welfare/TANF/SNAP frauds are almost never mentioned: people who get those but the money is not enough to sustain them so take jobs on the side and either get paid under the table or do not report the income -- so the "lazy" welfare cheat seems to actually be a welfare recipient who WANTS to work but doing so risks the small benefits they receive).

 

[DavidM]

But if you don't make it in life, don't blame the "system" and say no opportunities exist.

And that's not it, either.

It's not about making it. It's about a system that relies on having people do a variety of very necessary jobs. Jobs that often require advanced educations that are earned at a skyrocketing cost to go along with the increase in energy prices, home prices, food costs, and other life expenses while wages sort of meander lazily upward, maybe. All that set against a backdrop of a staggering rise in wealth for a small percentage of the population and corporations raking in massive profits. Not everybody has an aptitude for fields that are high-paying but to them, we shouldn't say, oh well, tough ****. We need teachers just as we need business owners.

So it's about figuring out ways to take some of the pressure off of the large segment of the workforce that is struggling (like tackling the big ticket costs of education and health care) as well as finding ways to get that accumulated wealth off the sidelines and flowing back into the economy.

None of that is to say that people shouldn't be held to standards of personal accountability. Most of us not born into extreme wealth have no choice but to put in the planning and hard work to get ahead. No argument. The problem is when the hurdles become so great, the costs so high, and the wages lagging, that hard work and planning aren't enough for a lot of people to do much more than get by.

 

[LSSpam]

The problem is when you have people working hard and making no progress. That's structurally unsound for a society because it means hardwork is not properly incentivized.

As a country we spend too much focus on the so-called "lazy" people who get "freebies". But very few people want a welfare lifestyle. Virtually everyone would like to have more.

The problem is when those people see others work hard, grind their whole life, and get nowhere. What's the point then? That's what creates "lazy" people, a sense of hopelessness. They do nothing not because their sole aspiration is to live in run down public housing month-to-month with no prospect for a better life. They do nothing because they see no point in working 40 hours a week and not making any significant forward progress.

And that's very destablizing to a society.

 

[wizard1183]

The problem is when you have people working hard and making no progress. That's structurally unsound for a society because it means hardwork is not properly incentivized.

As a country we spend too much focus on the so-called "lazy" people who get "freebies". But very few people want a welfare lifestyle. Virtually everyone would like to have more.

The problem is when those people see others work hard, grind their whole life, and get nowhere. What's the point then? That's what creates "lazy" people, a sense of hopelessness. They do nothing not because their sole aspiration is to live in run down public housing month-to-month with no prospect for a better life. They do nothing because they see no point in working 40 hours a week and not making any significant forward progress.

And that's very destablizing to a society.

Exactly! Great post.

 

[Cajun Mike]

The problem is when you have people working hard and making no progress. That's structurally unsound for a society because it means hardwork is not properly incentivized.

As a country we spend too much focus on the so-called "lazy" people who get "freebies". But very few people want a welfare lifestyle. Virtually everyone would like to have more.

The problem is when those people see others work hard, grind their whole life, and get nowhere. What's the point then? That's what creates "lazy" people, a sense of hopelessness. They do nothing not because their sole aspiration is to live in run down public housing month-to-month with no prospect for a better life. They do nothing because they see no point in working 40 hours a week and not making any significant forward progress.

And that's very destablizing to a society.

I agree with Wiz. Great Post!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Saint_Kyle]

The side of the story that goes untold is that the people on both end of the spectrum both have equal opportunity to accomplish substantial wealth, unless it was inherited.

 

[LSSpam]

The side of the story that goes untold is that the people on both end of the spectrum both have equal opportunity to accomplish substantial wealth, unless it was inherited.

Life is unfair. This is fundamental. The idea that a kid born to a single mother in a disastrous home environment, going to a run-down school with disenchanted/engaged teachers, in a neighborhood with little social support, peers who regularly give up on contributing to society and pressure the kid to do the same, has the same opportunity as an upper-middle class kid in a great school system, two parent home with extended family, tons of community support in the form of extracurricular activities and even just teenage job opportunities, is laughable. Having read that paragraph no one will not come back here and assert that "people on both end of the spectrum both have equal opportunity". They don't and everyone knows it. So people should stop parroting phrases they don't actually believe in.

People don't have equal opportunity. And they won't, ever, either. If we allow for people to build for their families, their children, it's impossible to provide equal opportunity. If my working hard allows me to provide better for my children, they should have more opportunity than someone who does not work hard for their kids. Otherwise, what's the point?

We neither have equal opportunity, nor should we.

That said, it's not so much about "equal opportunity" in that any two random children have the same chance of being Harvard graduated entrepreneurs. By that I mean, if you talk about opportunity in absolute terms, it's not possible. But it is somewhat possible in relative terms. Maybe child A has very little opportunity to go to MIT and start the next big start up. But he should have the opportunity to better his life. To provide a better life for his family. That's the key.

If we can just provide relatively equal opportunity, the ability for everyone to better their lives, even if not to the same level in a generation, then you generate real upward mobility for people. Maybe it doesn't happen in a generation, but at least you have poor people graduating to middle class. And then who knows where their grand kids go? That's a promise worth working for.

 

[Tapxe]

Is That Another Wave Of Collapse Headed Our Way? : 13.7: Cosmos And Culture : NPR

But other, sobering, news is also afoot and deserves our attention, too.
A recent study led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharrei of the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, a National Science Foundation-supported research center at the University of Maryland, has warned that civilization as we know it may be at the brink of collapse.
Rapid population growth — combined with our highly unbalanced distribution of wealth — and its obvious need for more resources (water, energy, food) may lead to a breaking point beyond which civilization becomes unsustainable.
Simply put, if you don't have any water to drink or food to eat but your neighbors do and won't share, you and your buddies are going to yank it away from them. Social unrest is not a joke.
Now, the authors of the study are acutely aware that apocalyptic cries have always been with us. However, they also warn us that in the past "historical collapses were allowed to occur by elites who appear to be oblivious to the catastrophic trajectory (most clearly apparent in the Roman and Mayan cases)." If not oblivious, at least unwilling to share the profits or to decrease their standard of living in the name of higher social equality.