Quote (EndlessSky @ Nov 14 2020 08:31am)
The poor people in the USA have a better life than most people in the entire world. Our poor people are fucking obese.
Most people are middle class though and median (middle class) income rose 10% in the past 5 years.
I had a pretty shrewd sociology professor back in the day and she spoke about the value of citizenships and benefits in terms of a global benefit measured in USD and she put US citizenship at around $500k in value and was a huge advocate for not giving that away by letting people in indiscriminately. With so much experience in the welfare system between knowing a bunch of people on welfare and working with so many people on welfare, I have to say it is correct (the value). You get cards to buy free food, completely free healthcare until 65, you can get five years of cash assistance and I wonder if people can do that per child they have, since the benefit is for the children and not people who just don't take care of themselves (Temporary Aide for Needy Families TANF)....I've never actually worked in state welfare handing out checks to or taking babies from those folks, I actually interviewed really poorly when I applied for CPS and APS for some reason.
I have been completely disgusted by reasons people have told me they were on permanent disability. Sometimes it just sounds like a criminal justice problem and not a health problem. I know a person who leads a work detail and it is for an agency that helps individuals with pretty severe developmental problems live as independently as possible, including aides in apartments and selective jobs they can do. It isn't easy but it is very productive, and having a reason to wake up everyday is about the most important thing I can think of having. She gets to experiment with the environment, like play country vs pop music, where country leads to dysphoria at work but pop makes everyone bouncy and productive. When people tell me they can't work because they lose their temper a lot so they're on government disability I think of the individuals who are at work who are severely disabled who actually have physical differences in their brain that makes it more difficult to regulate emotion and impulsivity. The person with schizophrenia is so disorganized sometimes they can't tie their shoes so okay I get it. I know a lot of it comes from what Marx would call a poverty of culture.
If I ever get in charge I will make it my personal business to do a full audit of state disability cases.
This post was edited by Skinned on Nov 14 2020 08:35am