$1,000,000 Doesn't Go As Far As It Used To

[The Rambam]

Do you think anyone goes hungry in this country as a consequence of the lack of availability of social safety net programs?

Yes. No one looking at the field claims that there is no hunger in the USA today. Causes are debated, but the fact isn't in question.

I read a George Will column this sunday where he said something along the lines: "it is impossible for the government to redistribute the nurturing normally required to equip folks with the skills neccesary to compete in the real world."

As the abject failure of every person ever raised in a government supported orphanage proves.

The mentally ill.

Exactly. And their children.

[doctorcoug]

Don't the mentally ill have it better now than they ever have, though?

Not saying there's no room for improvement, but they're not an afterthought either.

I've got a couple of homeless schizophrenic patients that need significant help, and it isn't necessarily monetary.

[Goatnapper'96]

Poverty comes from lack of education and basic social habits. Time and again people in poverty win big lottery jackpots only to be bankrupt in a matter of years. One guy in Houston a while back won a couple hundred thousand dollars. In a matter of weeks he had blown through most of it as he purchased cars/vans for the church to which he belonged, threw a big party, and other non-investment type expenditures. I have no answer really to curing poverty. I'm not sure there is a cure, like napper said above.

I was once very poor, as a college student, but I never felt poor because I was in grad school and had great opportuniites on the horizon. I also understood money, investing, taxes, etc. and felt equipped to handle all of that and more. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to grow up poor in a social environment where there is little hope of ever being anything other than poor. For some groups it has been implanted in their social environment that you will just be poor adn that cycle is too hard to break. A kid who grows up on food stamps likely won't learn important social-economic principles at a young age that are necessary to support him/herself later in life.

Several years ago there was a poll on CB asking what would happen if the worlds resources were all divided up equally among all people. The majority of votes went to the answer that read something like "the rich would be rich again and the poor would be poor again within 5 years" and the consensus was that this was the reason why Obama's policies of spreading the wealth would never work. While I semi-agree with that conclusion, I think the poll better illustrates that real capital and equity is not money, but an understanding of the social-economic principles of the world. Based on this I think there are two obvious options: (1) educate people better, especially inner-city kids or (2) change the social-economic principles.

I agree with you but how do we educate better in areas where we will be on multiple generations of poverty and education is not only unwanted, but those who seek it are belittled and pulled back into the crud?

Robin had his Orewellian government kidnapping program because Big Brother can do more for people by changing their social atmosphere, but his social re-engineering friends don't have a great track record in my book. I believe in public education but I am very skeptical about government programs designed to replace parenting. But at least it is an idea which is better than my resigning myself to believing there will always be an underclass that the rest of us just support with a subsistence life. If we elect Newt can we follow the Limey's example and ship them to the Moon Colony? The fuel will only be two bucks and 4 bits a gallon!

[Goatnapper'96]

I dunno... Skid Row looks just as depressing today as it did when we first moved to Los Angeles.

He had a heart of stone..........just barely out of school, came from the edge of town fought like a switchblade so no-one could take him down, yeah!

[RobinFinderson]

Don't the mentally ill have it better now than they ever have, though?

Not saying there's no room for improvement, but they're not an afterthought either.

I dunno... Skid Row looks just as depressing today as it did when we first moved to Los Angeles.

[Green Monstah]

The mentally ill.

Don't the mentally ill have it better now than they ever have, though?

Not saying there's no room for improvement, but they're not an afterthought either.

[Moliere]

I read a George Will column this sunday where he said something along the lines: "it is impossible for the government to redistribute the nurturing normally required to equip folks with the skills neccesary to compete in the real world."

I am not sure cyclical poverty can be fixed. There will always be a need for social spending on a basic subsistence lifestyle for a certain portion of society. I don't think fair has anything to do with it but it will always be neccesary. In some ways I find that the economic islands that many inner cities are becoming are not a whole lot different than what the Limey's tried to accomplish with Australia and Georgia.

Poverty comes from lack of education and basic social habits. Time and again people in poverty win big lottery jackpots only to be bankrupt in a matter of years. One guy in Houston a while back won a couple hundred thousand dollars. In a matter of weeks he had blown through most of it as he purchased cars/vans for the church to which he belonged, threw a big party, and other non-investment type expenditures. I have no answer really to curing poverty. I'm not sure there is a cure, like napper said above.

I was once very poor, as a college student, but I never felt poor because I was in grad school and had great opportuniites on the horizon. I also understood money, investing, taxes, etc. and felt equipped to handle all of that and more. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to grow up poor in a social environment where there is little hope of ever being anything other than poor. For some groups it has been implanted in their social environment that you will just be poor adn that cycle is too hard to break. A kid who grows up on food stamps likely won't learn important social-economic principles at a young age that are necessary to support him/herself later in life.

Several years ago there was a poll on CB asking what would happen if the worlds resources were all divided up equally among all people. The majority of votes went to the answer that read something like "the rich would be rich again and the poor would be poor again within 5 years" and the consensus was that this was the reason why Obama's policies of spreading the wealth would never work. While I semi-agree with that conclusion, I think the poll better illustrates that real capital and equity is not money, but an understanding of the social-economic principles of the world. Based on this I think there are two obvious options: (1) educate people better, especially inner-city kids or (2) change the social-economic principles.

[Goatnapper'96]

The mentally ill.

Good then they can die of starvation and decrease the surplus population!

[doctorcoug]

Do you think anyone goes hungry in this country as a consequence of the lack of availability of social safety net programs?

The mentally ill.

[Goatnapper'96]

I think this story highlights a fundamental problem with many of the nation's lower-to-middle income homes: they simply don't know how to utilize their money. She gets $500,000 after taxes and in the space of several months allegedly still doesn't have enough money for food because she locked her money up in a house and left herself completely illiquid.

I read a George Will column this sunday where he said something along the lines: "it is impossible for the government to redistribute the nurturing normally required to equip folks with the skills neccesary to compete in the real world."

I am not sure cyclical poverty can be fixed. There will always be a need for social spending on a basic subsistence lifestyle for a certain portion of society. I don't think fair has anything to do with it but it will always be neccesary. In some ways I find that the economic islands that many inner cities are becoming are not a whole lot different than what the Limey's tried to accomplish with Australia and Georgia.

[EuropeanFootballMale]

I think this story highlights a fundamental problem with many of the nation's lower-to-middle income homes: they simply don't know how to utilize their money. She gets $500,000 after taxes and in the space of several months allegedly still doesn't have enough money for food because she locked her money up in a house and left herself completely illiquid.

2 houses.

[Indy Coug]

I think this story highlights a fundamental problem with many of the nation's lower-to-middle income homes: they simply don't know how to utilize their money. She gets $500,000 after taxes and in the space of several months allegedly still doesn't have enough money for food because she locked her money up in a house and left herself completely illiquid.

[Goatnapper'96]

This will be the rallying cry for conservatives and the cite for making children go hungry as they cut food assistance.

Do you think anyone goes hungry in this country as a consequence of the lack of availability of social safety net programs?

[Uncle Ted]

After taking a lump sum and paying taxes, the unemployed woman said she ended up with just more than $500,000.

Asked if she had the right to the public assistance money, Clayton answered, "I kind of do. I have no income, and I have bills to pay. I have two houses."
Zorn said the state House has passed bills on the matter. One would require a state agency to conduct an assets test if a citizen wins more than $1,000 in lottery earnings. "That will trigger whether or not the people are eligible to receive public assistance."

The legislature has not approved any final measures.

Clayton told WDIV she had wanted to continue using a food-assistance card until it is cut off. "It's hard. I am struggling."

CUF should take up a collection to help this poor victim of the government out.

[Moliere]

This will be the rallying cry for conservatives and the cite for making children go hungry as they cut food assistance.