Why would anyone have a problem with working 80 hours a month

Lobbyists control what is allowed on television - and what bans are allowed/not allowed and they control how politicians vote on subsidies.

 

This is a complicated issue.

So - over 50% of those on SNAP work at least 35 hours a week and 45% of those on welfare work 35 hours a week.

The largest companies with employees on SNAP are Walmart and McDonalds.

In fairness to Walmart and McDonalds, they are also two of the largest employers in the USA.

We all have met and known people that just couldn't keep a job or did not want to work - but those people stick out in our memory, and that isn't the majority of people that are on SNAP and Medicaid.

There are a lot of societal problems that are not being addressed politically or legislatively that contribute to people working and still needing help.... and it does not appear to me that these topics are going to be handled anytime soon.

The ultra wealthy in the USA have seen their total wealthy by percentage increase compared to the middle and lower classes. The government has not adequately adjusted that distribution - and as a result, the middle class, lower middle and upper middle have had to pay for the negative externality costs of this type of distribution ---- hence SNAP etc.

We have also haphazardly gone from a single earner model, to a duel earner model with almost ZERO help from the government, in either daycare or social pressures or educationally.

It is all a mess, and really the last time that I can think that anything massive or successfully was done was the 1960's with Medicare and social security. Since then we have let the infrastructure rot, have largely let big business do what they want --- and we don't have the same protections on food, consumer goods, housing that other first world nations have. The USA doesn't/shouldn't be Western Europe, but we do need to do a better job of protecting our people.

 

I'll grant @strosb4bros this: 42 million people on SNAP is too many people. Doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the program, but there is something wrong with our economy that that many people qualify. Jobs in this country need to pay better at the bottom rungs. To make that happen, the bargaining power of unskilled labor needs to be strengthened vis-a-vis capital. How we do that, I have no idea. We are headed in the exact opposite direction right now.

That gets me to why I quoted you-- UBI. I like this policy approach because it uncouples basic living expenses from work. Right now we have people in whom we have not invested for education or skills training and asking them to go and compete against robots and computers in a race that is forever tilting further against them. We want the robots and computers for human advancement, but the further we advance the incrementally fewer number of people can meaningfully contribute value over and above what they can do. There is no point in advancing if human livelihood is dependent on performing functions we are less and less capable of performing. So we need to decouple living from work so people can live fulfilling lives even if they can't contribute to wealth generation. The alternative is more and more people fall out of the economy until there is a violent revolution.

 

Agreed

There will come a time when there simply won't be enough jobs for people to do.

When 1 man and Automation can do the work of 10000 . . . what happens to the other 9999?

Rocket River

 

We pay for it all regardless because it's unethical to let people die either from starvation, heart disease, or obesity. The cost of Ozempic is probably less over their lifetime than a couple of large heart attacks, high blood pressure, etc.

 

Are there enough Jobs in America to give everyone 80 hours a month

Rocket River

 

It’s simply the truth that some people cannot work. Are you denying that? Thus, it’s backward to require 80 hours of work for food assistance, unless you’re perfectly fine with starving people who truly need it.

As an aside, are there cheats? Yes, there are. Find a better way to deal with that than by starving people who need food assistance.

 

QUESTION:
This seems to be the basic motto

Republicans: It is better than millions suffer rather than a few of the "wrong ones" get the benefits
Democrats: It is better that some of the "wrong ones" benefit if it means millions benefit

Rocket River

 

@strosb4bros

I believe when you say you went to Wake Forest and @El_Conquistador and @bigtexxx attended Rice.

And I know you guys are racist for getting caught up in ignorant redneck ish like welfare queens who regardless if they really exist would have little consequence on the national deficit

 

@Jontro
@Os Trigonum
@pgabriel

Most people here are lazy , they don’t work from day to night

Like this breh

 

These days, the average Wal-Mart cashier is a self-checkout machine.

 

$3,000,000,000 / 8,000 = $375,000. Yep, that's a stupid deal. And the number of jobs and their salaries are always over promised. Spending $375k to bring in a maybe $100k job is the kind of stupid stuff functionally Innumerate politicians keep doing over and over. We just need to make this incentive and tax break crap illegal, so corporations can't threaten and bribe their way to the best deal.

 

I'm not doing any of that. I'm directly addressing your premise that people should work 80 hours a month to qualify for food assistance. I’ve also acknowledged that abuse exists and even suggested a solution in my very first response. Yet you’ve ignored that and keep pushing a policy that makes no sense for those who cannot work, the very people food assistance is meant to help.

So, it seems like you either don’t care about denying help to people who genuinely can’t work and are fine with letting them go hungry, or you don’t actually believe such people exist. The latter isn’t true, so the only conclusion left is that you’re okay with a system that starves the most vulnerable.

That said, I don’t think you truly don’t care. It’s more likely that you do, but you’re too attached to a flawed solution to admit it. There are better, more effective ways to address your concerns. You just refuse to consider them because you’re fixated on this backward approach.

 

Welfare fraud is the race card. It's a dog whistle.

SNAP had a half billion dollar budget this year.

Do not care