A short list of observations
1) As many (if not more) rich people are lazy as poor people that are lazy. Laziness is not an issue; it is such a non-issue, in fact, because poor people are OFTEN the hardest working people. When was the last time you did 60 hours of back-breaking labor just to pull in little over 7 dollars an hour (or less) from a temp agency (because not even WalMart is hiring in West Virginia currently)
2) There are little to no jobs that pay a LIVING wage. When was the last time minimum wage was increased to accomodate increases in gas prices, insurace costs (more on this later) and standard of living increases (rent hikes, cost of food, etc)
3) What few jobs there were for unskilled laborers which payed living wages have since been outsourced, overseas, to other countries TO THE BENEFIT of the companies that outsourced (in the form of massive tax breaks; we literally gave tax money to ship jobs overseas and continue to do so today to my knowledge)
4) Due to skyrocketing costs in health-care, 45 million americans go without ANY form of health care. If, for instance, they recieve bodily harm while on the job (likely due to the manual labor most poor folks are forced to do such as landscaping, construction, etc), they are unlikely to have savings (due to their living day to day on little to no wages) and without health care, they have NO medical options available. Hospitols are by and large required by law to stablize all patients, but that is IT. Once stabalized, they are on the street with nothing in the way of antibiotics (if this is needed), after-care, consultation, etc. Now consider families in this situation.
5) Children are more often than not the ones who are forced to suffer from poverty due to their being unable to work (child labor laws ... a good thing) and required to attend school (truancy laws ... another good thing). One in five children IN AMERICA go to school hungry, recieve the free lunch at school and go home hungry. 20% of children live below the poverty line ... who here knows what living AT the poverty line is like? I doubt ANY of you republican ditto-heads have a clue.
6) Welfare is a non-issue. It represents such an amazingly small percentage of the annual budget compared to military spending. We currently maintain the ability to fight two wars at all times and have one of the largest standing armies in the world, though we have no obvious enemies. We maintain a World War level military at all times. The only countries closest to us in military spending are China, Iran, North Korea and some other military dictatorships around the globe. All of them, combined, do not equal our military spending.
7) We currently do not have a capitalist economy and have not had one since the first anti-trust laws were enacted and the New Deal became a reality. We live in a socialized capitalism whereby some industries (such as agriculture) are subsidized by the government in order to keep them competitive in an otherwise flooded market
8) The nature of capitalism is such that cheaper and cheaper ways are found to produce the same product. As such, the product becomes less expensive until the cost of producing the good is equal to the purchase price of the good (thereby eliminating profit, thereby eliminating incentive to produce the product). When this occurs in an essential industry, our government steps in and subsidizes the industry in order to artificially keep it going. This is called socialism any way you slice it
9) Democrats are calling for us to socialize the industries which currently are inflating costs in other areas. One such area is healthcare. America is currently the ONLY developed nation IN THE WORLD without healthcare (to my knowledge). Due to this lack of subsidizing, health care costs are inflating to the point that in a short time, only the super-wealthy will be able to afford even the most basic health care. This is the result of privatizing an otherwise essential industry.
10) Welfare has its problems, to be sure, but that only means we need to reconstruct welfare. Personally, I don't see any need to institute authoritarian dictatoriships in order to aid poor families. Providing housing, day care, health-care and food while the family undergoes retraining in a viable industry sounds FAR more humane.
11) Poverty is the effect of combining business interests into political interests ABOVE those of the common good. Businesses are in the business of making money, not caring for citizens. In what way, shape, or form does catering to business interests translate to the general health and well-being of citizens?
12) As long as politicians are, by and large, paid for by open and legal bribery in the form of campaign financing, our politicians will rule in favor of business and not in the favor of the general well-being of citizens
2) There are little to no jobs that pay a LIVING wage. When was the last time minimum wage was increased to accomodate increases in gas prices, insurace costs (more on this later) and standard of living increases (rent hikes, cost of food, etc)
3) What few jobs there were for unskilled laborers which payed living wages have since been outsourced, overseas, to other countries TO THE BENEFIT of the companies that outsourced (in the form of massive tax breaks; we literally gave tax money to ship jobs overseas and continue to do so today to my knowledge)
4) Due to skyrocketing costs in health-care, 45 million americans go without ANY form of health care. If, for instance, they recieve bodily harm while on the job (likely due to the manual labor most poor folks are forced to do such as landscaping, construction, etc), they are unlikely to have savings (due to their living day to day on little to no wages) and without health care, they have NO medical options available. Hospitols are by and large required by law to stablize all patients, but that is IT. Once stabalized, they are on the street with nothing in the way of antibiotics (if this is needed), after-care, consultation, etc. Now consider families in this situation.
5) Children are more often than not the ones who are forced to suffer from poverty due to their being unable to work (child labor laws ... a good thing) and required to attend school (truancy laws ... another good thing). One in five children IN AMERICA go to school hungry, recieve the free lunch at school and go home hungry. 20% of children live below the poverty line ... who here knows what living AT the poverty line is like? I doubt ANY of you republican ditto-heads have a clue.
6) Welfare is a non-issue. It represents such an amazingly small percentage of the annual budget compared to military spending. We currently maintain the ability to fight two wars at all times and have one of the largest standing armies in the world, though we have no obvious enemies. We maintain a World War level military at all times. The only countries closest to us in military spending are China, Iran, North Korea and some other military dictatorships around the globe. All of them, combined, do not equal our military spending.
7) We currently do not have a capitalist economy and have not had one since the first anti-trust laws were enacted and the New Deal became a reality. We live in a socialized capitalism whereby some industries (such as agriculture) are subsidized by the government in order to keep them competitive in an otherwise flooded market
8) The nature of capitalism is such that cheaper and cheaper ways are found to produce the same product. As such, the product becomes less expensive until the cost of producing the good is equal to the purchase price of the good (thereby eliminating profit, thereby eliminating incentive to produce the product). When this occurs in an essential industry, our government steps in and subsidizes the industry in order to artificially keep it going. This is called socialism any way you slice it
9) Democrats are calling for us to socialize the industries which currently are inflating costs in other areas. One such area is healthcare. America is currently the ONLY developed nation IN THE WORLD without healthcare (to my knowledge). Due to this lack of subsidizing, health care costs are inflating to the point that in a short time, only the super-wealthy will be able to afford even the most basic health care. This is the result of privatizing an otherwise essential industry.
10) Welfare has its problems, to be sure, but that only means we need to reconstruct welfare. Personally, I don't see any need to institute authoritarian dictatoriships in order to aid poor families. Providing housing, day care, health-care and food while the family undergoes retraining in a viable industry sounds FAR more humane.
11) Poverty is the effect of combining business interests into political interests ABOVE those of the common good. Businesses are in the business of making money, not caring for citizens. In what way, shape, or form does catering to business interests translate to the general health and well-being of citizens?
12) As long as politicians are, by and large, paid for by open and legal bribery in the form of campaign financing, our politicians will rule in favor of business and not in the favor of the general well-being of citizens
posted by Political Zoon at 1:42 AM
2 Comments:
PZ, thanks again for your comment on my blog. I read through yours briefly and wanted to comment on this post particularly. We differ on some opinions, and likely background, but I wanted you to be aware of my post. Actually, my post previous to this mentioned you as well.
See my post at: http://1redpill.blogspot.com/2005/10/long-list-of-objections.html
Great blog I hope we can work to build a better health care system. Health insurance is a major aspect to many.
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