Speaker to Animals wrote:Also, change the incentive structure of welfare. Currently, it's dangerous for a welfare recipient to work part-time since they lose more than they can potentially gain. Furthermore, because the wages for unskilled labor are falling, and the number of jobs for such people does not match or exceed the numbers of unskilled laborers, there is no guarantee they can keep the job. These jobs are often temporary as well.
Let them work without losing the benefit for a while. But give them the vocational training they need to get a better job.
Maybe kick out the millions of illegal immigrants who are glutting the low-skilled labor market as well. You think that might be a factor here?
I mean.. fuck.. from my perspective, all of you are fucking wrong on this for one reason or another.
The qualifications for benefits are often cliff-like, maybe better said guillotine like. If you are on disability, and manage to earn more than around $1100 just once in a month, you are automatically disqualified. Of course, since $15 is about the de facto minimum in California. Which some can earn by just sitting in a chair with some luck. So you can lose it all by working one extra hour. And some disabilities can get better, or worse, like mental illness, or other illnesses.
It's nutz. Why is disability is not treated on a sliding scale, especially a permanent scale when that just about guarantees being stuck in it? Like oh, you managed to get a little better with that schizophrenia, well don't work too much or we'll dump your ass.
And like StA says, daycare, and I would add higher education, or training, that one could actually afford, or even free would be great. But that's welfare so it's verboten.
brewster wrote:
The thing is, many of these would NOT fail without help, they just get it because, why the fuck not if they can? As I said upthread, the cases I personally know best are developer deals. My area was once "blighted" and declared a redevelopment zone 30 years ago, but now it is white hot. Developers are no longer taking a risk building here, and no longer need incentives. Yet they've grown so accustomed to having their snouts in the trough, and the politicians as well, that the tax abatements and other goodies keep coming.
So why are those how depend on welfare to live are treated with the same contempt as the already rich who depend on welfare to become richer? Like our current President?
Fife wrote:The idea of a "sunset" clause to a politician is like the idea of "sunlight" to a vampire.
Term limits create another set of problems; it gives all the power to the bureaucracy, and prevents politicians developing the expertise needed to be good at their job. By the time a state rep. gets to know how to do his job well, he has to leave. Also, it prevents the creation of an institutional memory, which is also important. However, bureaucrats are not term limited, which means they can burrow in and spend the time needed to learn how to manipulate the system to his liken better than the elected officials.