5 ms·
To "live" at what standard of living? A smartphone? A recent one? What standard of medical care? What about entertainment? What if someone wants only to eat
by endtime 6y ago
To "live" at what standard of living? A smartphone? A recent one? What standard of medical care? What about entertainment? What if someone wants only to eat organic, fair trade food?
When you pay for yourself, you're price sensitive and try to choose what makes sense for you. When you're not price sensitive, you run into a major incentive problem. If your life is funded by taxpayers, you have no reason not to argue that basic subsistence requires a lifestyle as expensive as you can get away with.
- adrr 6y agoThere’s obviously income thresholds for Medicaid, food stamps and other services. ACA clearly defines standard of medical care. Not sure what your asking because the government has already figured this out base on data.
- mdoms 6y agoEveryone I know who has lived on government assistance is most certainly price sensitive.
- dmitriid 6y ago> To "live" at what standard of living? Decent. Roosevelt: """ In my Inaugural I laid down the simple proposition that nobody is going to starve in this country. It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By business I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living. """ > A smartphone? Yes > A recent one? Define "recent". One that has internet connectivity, allows you to install apps that are increasingly required today (banks, school, mail, auth etc.) > What standard of medical care? All of it except cosmetic. A.k.a. universal healthcare. > What about entertainment? What about it? Define entertainment. Let's do this way more broadly: how about vacations, sick leaves and parental leave? > What if someone wants only to eat organic, fair trade food? Yes. The poor cannot escape bad eating habits because (especially in the US) more often than not they have no access to healthy food, and healthy food is much more expensive than current government assistance can cover.
- OCASM 6y agoDemanding other people take care of you even against their will and using the power of the state to achieve so. How is that not slavery?
- dmitriid 6y agoDemanding other people live in perpetual poverty with no safety nets, how is that not slavery. BTW: Are you American, and do you by any chance identify as Christian? Because I've only seen two groups of people so hellbent on never helping their fellow man. American Christians and American libertarians.
- tick_tock_tick 6y agoYou must have lived a horribly isolated life if those are the only groups you've ever seen this behavior from. Take a look at the EU and austerity measures if you want to see this kind of behavior on a large scale.
- dmitriid 6y ago> Take a look at the EU and austerity measures I've yet to see an austerity measure that strips away even the most basic protections the way US does. > this kind of behavior on a large scale. The US: 40 million people one month away from eviction. 30 million people are one medical emergency away from life-time of crippling debt. Americans: oh, look at austerity measures in Europe.
- OCASM 6y agoCould be that I do want people to improve their lives and just happen to disagree with your methods? No, disagreeing with your must mean I want people to stay in poverty forever... Learn from immigrants: they earn their way to a better life by applying themselves and helping each other.
- dmitriid 6y ago