Quote:
Originally Posted by Antitrust32
while I do not agree with denying the right to vote..
a few things:
why would it be a bad thing to drug test welfare recipients? (of course only if there was a very cost efficient way of drug testing)
also why would it be a bad thing to make sure people who are living in goverment housing are keeping the place nice? I dont own my own place, I rent (meaning I'm paying to live there), and my landlord still has the right to make sure his place is kept up.
I have a pipe dream where people would only get pregnant when are ready for one emotionally and financially... but its just a pipe dream.
Why should food stamps be able to buy you potatoe chips and ice cream? they should be used for food that is healthy and needed to survive, if you want to snack on ****, buy it with your own cash. Why the hell should my friend be able to buy Starbucks mocha coffee from the gas station on a damn food stamp card?
I do think people who are on welfare should have to do community service. at least then you are earning your buck.
its not about poor people being poor because they want to be... its about having some damn respect for the tax dollar, and if you need to live on the tax dollar, it shouldnt just be a free ride.
|
Being poor in America is by no means a "free ride", it is a life full of anguish...many are homeless, denied necessary medical treatment, victims of violent crimes, forced to live in housing that is rat infested, cold in winter, hot in summer etc. etc. Community service is an idea with merit but much harder to fairly administer than to just say "lets do it", I wouldn't be opposed to that if fairly set up and administered. I see a lot of folks on food stamps, some undeniably use them unwisely but the majority are buying generic groceries to make that resource go far enough to feed their family, for every abuser there are many many folks who use them wisely...again, I am not opposed to common sense restrictions on what one can buy with same. You answered your own question about drug testing. Everyone would hopefully have enough pride to keep their living quarters presentable, I suspect if we have "neat police" the cost of same would far outweigh the benefit however. The answer it seems to me lies in education and availability of jobs that pay a livable wage in areas of poverty not in dreaming up ways to punish the poor or to further widen the gap between the America of the wealthy and the America of the rest of folks. The idea that the poor are poor only because they wish to be or because they are inferior goes against logic, the ideals of all major religions as well as what this country stands for.