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I think compared to the people who make a lot of noise and outrage claiming to care deeply about the plight of these people who can't vote due to lack of ID, no

I think compared to the people who make a lot of noise and outrage claiming to care deeply about the plight of these people who can't vote due to lack of ID, no. I don't know if I've ever heard about the issue when it hasn't been prompted or in the context of voter ID. > It’s hard and expensive. Again, I don't think it is relative to what else gets spent and what else gets done. Social services spending on a state and federal level is just gargantuan and increasing so I don't see quite where your last sentence connects to reality. https://madison.com/lifestyles/the-us-states-spending-the-most-on-welfare/collection_7a6a5511-0f45-50be-a45d-755f2c55b989.html#9 https://madison.com/lifestyles/the-us-states-spending-the-mo...

ModernMech 5y ago
That people make a lot of noise about an issue doesn't change or negate the fact that it is an issue, and that people and organizations are indeed working on fixing it. If you haven't heard about an issue outside of a particular context, perhaps that is just related to the channels you are monitoring rather than the reality of the work being done on the ground. Your link shows that a lot of money is being spent, but not nearly enough, or perhaps in the wrong places. The ~$3000 per capita spending numbers are laughably small. People on average are going to use more than that per year. So the question is: how is that money actually distributed? Who is getting more than they need, because plenty are going without enough. Social programs are famously not very well funded, so your argument that social welfare programs are swimming in "gargantuan" levels of cash doesn't ring true to me, and the numbers you show bear that out. Like I said, expect people (like yourself) to balk at requests to increase funding in social programs. Usually the number one response I will get from legislators is that the already spend enough as is, why do they need to spend more? My wife was a social worker for a number of years, so I got to see how "social welfare" is actually spent. From what I witnessed inside the social work industrial complex, a number of corporations have sprung up that work to milk this government money without ever actually helping anyone in the process. They will hire social workers to visit people in need of crisis management or some other social service, but essentially their job is to just fill out reams and reams of paperwork leaving no time to actually help anyone. The corporation gets a huge stack of state dollars, the social worker gets a mere $14.00 for their hour, and the person in need is left wanting and in need. It's a difficult system to change because there are entrenched interests now dependent on the revenue stream. If you want in on that money, you're going to need the same lobbying power as these corporations.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  > That people make a lot of noise about an issue doesn't change or negate the fact that it is an issue, and that people and organizations are indeed working on fixing it. I wasn't saying nobody does, I'm sure some under appreciated and under resourced groups who actually want to make things better for these poor people are doing great, difficult work and care deeply about the issue. That does not include any federal or state politician of note though, nor any media corporation or their journalists, or any other "activists" or twitter trolls who only pretend to care about it when voter ID comes up. I'm not sure if my rhetoric wasn't quite clear -- I did not mean to imply that literally nobody cares about getting people ID for reasons other than voting, or has ever once raised the issue until that post I just made.

ModernMech 5y ago

That people make a lot of noise about an issue doesn't change or negate the fact that it is an issue, and that people and organizations are indeed working on fixing it. If you haven't heard about an issue outside of a particular context, perhaps that is just related to the channels you are monitoring rather than the reality of the work being done on the ground. Your link shows that a lot of money is being spent, but not nearly enough, or perhaps in the wrong places. The ~$3000 per capita spending numbers are laughably small. People on average are going to use more than that per year. So the question is: how is that money actually distributed? Who is getting more than they need, because plenty are going without enough. Social programs are famously not very well funded, so your argument that social welfare programs are swimming in "gargantuan" levels of cash doesn't ring true to me, and the numbers you show bear that out. Like I said, expect people (like yourself) to balk at requests to increase funding in social programs. Usually the number one response I will get from legislators is that the already spend enough as is, why do they need to spend more? My wife was a social worker for a number of years, so I got to see how "social welfare" is actually spent. From what I witnessed inside the social work industrial complex, a number of corporations have sprung up that work to milk this government money without ever actually helping anyone in the process. They will hire social workers to visit people in need of crisis management or some other social service, but essentially their job is to just fill out reams and reams of paperwork leaving no time to actually help anyone. The corporation gets a huge stack of state dollars, the social worker gets a mere $14.00 for their hour, and the person in need is left wanting and in need. It's a difficult system to change because there are entrenched interests now dependent on the revenue stream. If you want in on that money, you're going to need the same lobbying power as these corporations.

throwawaylinux 5y ago
> That people make a lot of noise about an issue doesn't change or negate the fact that it is an issue, and that people and organizations are indeed working on fixing it. I wasn't saying nobody does, I'm sure some under appreciated and under resourced groups who actually want to make things better for these poor people are doing great, difficult work and care deeply about the issue. That does not include any federal or state politician of note though, nor any media corporation or their journalists, or any other "activists" or twitter trolls who only pretend to care about it when voter ID comes up. I'm not sure if my rhetoric wasn't quite clear -- I did not mean to imply that literally nobody cares about getting people ID for reasons other than voting, or has ever once raised the issue until that post I just made.