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Are centralized wealth redistribution programs really what rural America needs? If they don't have any realistic opportunities, the best those can offer is a t

Are centralized wealth redistribution programs really what rural America needs? If they don't have any realistic opportunities, the best those can offer is a thin, meager - and worst of all - perpetual subsistence, I think.

loeg 10y ago
The effect of taking away the redistribution is higher taxes on rural America (and lower taxes on the cities). To the best of my knowledge, rural America doesn't actually want that.
RandomInteger4 10y ago
Again, blame the conservatives for making SNAP and similar programs near useless for getting people back on their feet. They'd rather the programs didn't exist at all than do something to fix the programs such as making the assistance scale with income rather than having a hard cut off.
- Sanddancer 10y ago
  Not to mention never raising the cutoffs. The limit for savings someone on medicaid can have is $2000. That limit was last adjusted in 1989. The limit per month for making money, like getting a side job to try to get back to work, is $20, which has not changed since medicaid was started in 1969. The cost of living amount of $600, which is the amount someone can supposedly live off of, hasn't been changed since 1989 as well. It's hard taking those steps back to independence because like you said, the limits are hard, and also outdated.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    > The limit per month for making money, like getting a side job to try to get back to work, is $20, which has not changed since medicaid was started in 1969. No, it's not; income limits are set by states, vary by population, and for populations that are covered at all tend to be much greater than $20/mo. The Medicaid expansion as part of the ACA also resultted in substantial changes in many states. [0] state limits, as a percent of the Federal Poverty Level, are available here: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-eligibility-levels/index.html https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medica...
- SmirkingRevenge 10y ago
  Getting people back on their feet is good, but what if there's no ground left to stand on, so-to-speak? I'm questioning whether entitlements really help rebuild that solid ground for rural Americans in economic hardships.
gremlinsinc 10y ago
the rest of America is headed in this direction.... The age of machines/ai/automation is coming, and it'll dwarf the industrial revolution by far. We're not just talking about losing fast food jobs, or factory jobs - driving, all labor jobs, telemarketing/customer service/tech support, medicine careers. There will be devices you step in or get in without anyone's help that can take x-rays without an X-ray tech, or do a sonagram, or echocardiogram. General practitioners will easily be replaced by AI who can diagnose diseases 300x times better and 1500x times faster than a doctor ever could. There's a good (albeit fictional) book that shows how it could get worse quicker than anyone can imagine, by the founder of 'How Stuff Works' - http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
- deleted 10y ago
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- deleted 10y ago
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- SmirkingRevenge 10y ago
  I generally agree. There will be a future where even human programming skills are no longer needed, I'm sure. Hopefully I can both still live a long life and not have my timeline overlap with that future too much =). However, until scarcity is totally eliminated, we'll be faced with the same challenge over and over again - how to bring prosperity to those whose roles in the social and economic order have been eliminated. I have no good answers.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> Are centralized wealth redistribution programs really what rural America needs? Moving to where there is economic activity is what many rural Americans need; identifying the fruitful places for that for one's individual circumstances and executing the moves, however, is harder to do when you can't meet subsistence needs, and sometimes people are going to need retraining to have new opportunities, or simply be past the point of having new opportunities, requiring additional individual support.

loeg 10y ago

The effect of taking away the redistribution is higher taxes on rural America (and lower taxes on the cities). To the best of my knowledge, rural America doesn't actually want that.

RandomInteger4 10y ago

Again, blame the conservatives for making SNAP and similar programs near useless for getting people back on their feet. They'd rather the programs didn't exist at all than do something to fix the programs such as making the assistance scale with income rather than having a hard cut off.

Sanddancer 10y ago
Not to mention never raising the cutoffs. The limit for savings someone on medicaid can have is $2000. That limit was last adjusted in 1989. The limit per month for making money, like getting a side job to try to get back to work, is $20, which has not changed since medicaid was started in 1969. The cost of living amount of $600, which is the amount someone can supposedly live off of, hasn't been changed since 1989 as well. It's hard taking those steps back to independence because like you said, the limits are hard, and also outdated.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  > The limit per month for making money, like getting a side job to try to get back to work, is $20, which has not changed since medicaid was started in 1969. No, it's not; income limits are set by states, vary by population, and for populations that are covered at all tend to be much greater than $20/mo. The Medicaid expansion as part of the ACA also resultted in substantial changes in many states. [0] state limits, as a percent of the Federal Poverty Level, are available here: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-eligibility-levels/index.html https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medica...
SmirkingRevenge 10y ago
Getting people back on their feet is good, but what if there's no ground left to stand on, so-to-speak? I'm questioning whether entitlements really help rebuild that solid ground for rural Americans in economic hardships.

gremlinsinc 10y ago

the rest of America is headed in this direction.... The age of machines/ai/automation is coming, and it'll dwarf the industrial revolution by far. We're not just talking about losing fast food jobs, or factory jobs - driving, all labor jobs, telemarketing/customer service/tech support, medicine careers. There will be devices you step in or get in without anyone's help that can take x-rays without an X-ray tech, or do a sonagram, or echocardiogram. General practitioners will easily be replaced by AI who can diagnose diseases 300x times better and 1500x times faster than a doctor ever could. There's a good (albeit fictional) book that shows how it could get worse quicker than anyone can imagine, by the founder of 'How Stuff Works' - http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

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SmirkingRevenge 10y ago
I generally agree. There will be a future where even human programming skills are no longer needed, I'm sure. Hopefully I can both still live a long life and not have my timeline overlap with that future too much =). However, until scarcity is totally eliminated, we'll be faced with the same challenge over and over again - how to bring prosperity to those whose roles in the social and economic order have been eliminated. I have no good answers.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> Are centralized wealth redistribution programs really what rural America needs? Moving to where there is economic activity is what many rural Americans need; identifying the fruitful places for that for one's individual circumstances and executing the moves, however, is harder to do when you can't meet subsistence needs, and sometimes people are going to need retraining to have new opportunities, or simply be past the point of having new opportunities, requiring additional individual support.