Just because someone is poor and struggling doesn't mean they're dumb/lazy leechers, and just because someone is rich and successful doesn't mean they did it all on their own without significant support pillars. The "welfare queen" is just a rhetoric device and is by no means even a remotely accurate representation of the norm. It's just fallacious, polarizing imagery used to turn people against their own financial interests.
Originally posted by hi19hi19
I've met someone who fits the description of welfare queen so incredibly accurately it erased any doubt in my mind such people DO exist and DO completely remorselessly leech off the system at the expense of hardworking people.
both of these are true
Originally posted by hi19hi19
That said, I sincerely doubt such people comprise 47% of America and 100% of Obama voters.
Really Romney, you could have been a little more eloquent there lmao
I'm pretty sure you can safely bash society's leeches without instantly alienating another, say, 46% of America...
this is well said
guys, just face it. romney watches too much foxnews
adlp: out of curiosity. do you accept evolution as completely watertight truth? thoughts on global warming?
yeah i think evolution is awesome. global warming is a different story though, i feel that increased human activity has contributed to earth's climate right now but i feel that it doesnt have as much impact as some people say it does, the earth's average temperatures seem to fluctuate in cycles, like inbetween ice ages and such.
honestly i havent looked into global warming that much because of how little it affects me
I don't think people know enough about climate change to be making radical assumptions. Read an interesting article in Wired magazine which mentioned the very issue, saying how things aren't going to change for a very very long time.
But politicians love to use this as part of their platform cuz it makes them look like the good guys.
Not to mention that scientists getting funding in the area of global warming research are getting paid for results that indicate omg yes planet is doomed!!!! But there have been so many papers with flawed calculations in the area of global warming it is just getting ridiculous
feel free to point out which aspects of the articles you disagree with and why if you think they are overly biased/skewed.
i should have said "publications" instead of "reporting". both sources are left-leaning. don't know about the third. didn't read it, either.
the nytimes article was very good, actually.
Romney’s comments also reveal that he has lost any sense of the social compact. In 1987, during Ronald Reagan’s second term, 62 percent of Republicans believed that the government has a responsibility to help those who can’t help themselves. Now, according to the Pew Research Center, only 40 percent of Republicans believe that.
The Republican Party, and apparently Mitt Romney, too, has shifted over toward a much more hyperindividualistic and atomistic social view — from the Reaganesque language of common citizenship to the libertarian language of makers and takers. There’s no way the country will trust the Republican Party to reform the welfare state if that party doesn’t have a basic commitment to provide a safety net for those who suffer for no fault of their own.
imo, an ideal government should not be performing these functions. with the way society is, we obviously can't just gut every social program. many of them are necessary, though they shouldn't be.
the w.post article was harsh, haha. used an image from the heritage foundation, i found that to be amusing. the government's handing of "tax cuts" and such is very stupid. the way taxes work in this country is very stupid. deductions and blah blah.
I'm frankly not interested in who or what XYZ random journalist is blaming the existence of welfare queens on. All I know is that they do exist, so the people who are all "waaah welfare queens is conservative propaganda everyone is a saint" are just as full of shit as Romney is lol
I general I agree with a pretty moderate point of view on government handouts. I agree the government should have the responsibility to provide a safety net for those in need. I disagree with how the government currently defines "in need" for example putting way too much emphasis on the elderly and end-of-life palliative care. I also believe said safety net should degrade at a rate proportional to how practical it is for said person to live without the safety net, and I put an emphasis on live without... NOT live comfortably without. I have a problem with funding some random lazy ass's gambling binges, yes.
On one hand, ambition in the unemployed and needy is fueled by a sense of possibility, not deprivation. On the other hand, ambition in those who are currently successful is dampened by reducing the reward for remaining successful (taxes), a fact that many people seem to conveniently forget when arguing for greater unemployment and welfare spending. Unemployment programs should act as an automatic economic stabilizer, rising and more importantly falling according to the needs of the labor industry. Unfortunately in practice, once people have benefits they are loathe to give them up and will game the system as much as possible to continue receiving them well beyond the point where it is economically wise and socially responsible to do so. I advocate a system that provides a safety net where needed, but also has a very well-defined system for eroding that safety net over time.
Concluding comments: honestly I'm going to write-in Mickey Mouse or some other bullshit for president this year. As far as I'm concerned voting for either major party candidate at all is a vote of confidence in the godawful American political system.
I love to think and discuss the theory behind how a country should be governed, but the amount of ****s I give about the way America has put such theories into practice is precisely equal to zero.
Obama and Romney are both terrible candidates, for different reasons. I'm pretty sure throwing a dart at a big board with every American's name and whoever it lands on is president for 4 years would result in a better president than Obama or Romney could ever hope to be.
sooooo, you make a point, I give you a data-backed response that shows why your point is disingenuous/incomplete/misleading, and your response is "lol i don't care"
i'd check some stats on the proportion of entitlement recipients who are unemployed and comfortably gorging their lazy asses by abusing the system--it *is* propaganda, and worrying so much about what 'welfare queens' are doing with your tax dollars is pretty silly. no, it's not "everybody's a saint." it's "the VAST majority of these folks are employed or striving for employment, and need these security nets to stay on their feet."
i can't bring myself to get worked up about a random gambler somewhere in the country who might be having fun with his welfare check when there's a working-class mom with an autistic kid who will be badly hurt by severe entitlement cuts in the name of 'showing those takers we're not gonna baby em no more.'
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