4 ms·

Starving the poor to prevent feeding the rich seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

by svieira 4y ago

paparush 4y ago
This is America. Don't catch you slippin up.
pessimizer 4y ago
Or rather like cutting off someone else's nose to spite people it won't matter much to. The efforts US politicians go through to make sure that some of the people who have paid a disproportionately large amount of taxes don't get a fraction of them back when they don't need it have been valiant. Considering that you could simply tax them enough to create a universal benefit, effectively refunding part of their own taxes and redistributing the rest, I'd suggest that starving the poor is a goal rather than a side-effect. We can't give people free college, what if people who could afford college go?
onei 4y ago
On the one hand yes. But letting your system be abused by those that have no need for it is never a good use of funds.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  That's actually not always true; it depends on the rate of fraud, the amount earned, how widespread it is, and the amount of damage you do to good-faith applicants by making the process harder. For example, Florida required drug testing to receive welfare; that program cost more than it saved taxpayers in benefits. https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-money-by-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-data-shows/1225721/ https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-mone...
- rnd0 4y ago
  >But letting your system be abused by those that have no need for it is never a good use of funds. And yet, we have rich people using fraud to get government funds that they have absolutely no need for while the poor get exploited and starve. The abuse is going on A N Y W A Y; it's just that people get more indignant when one of the "poors" occasionally get that extra soda out of the machine.

4 ms·

Starving the poor to prevent feeding the rich seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

by svieira 4y ago

Starving the poor to prevent feeding the rich seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

paparush 4y ago
This is America. Don't catch you slippin up.
pessimizer 4y ago
Or rather like cutting off someone else's nose to spite people it won't matter much to. The efforts US politicians go through to make sure that some of the people who have paid a disproportionately large amount of taxes don't get a fraction of them back when they don't need it have been valiant. Considering that you could simply tax them enough to create a universal benefit, effectively refunding part of their own taxes and redistributing the rest, I'd suggest that starving the poor is a goal rather than a side-effect. We can't give people free college, what if people who could afford college go?
onei 4y ago
On the one hand yes. But letting your system be abused by those that have no need for it is never a good use of funds.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  That's actually not always true; it depends on the rate of fraud, the amount earned, how widespread it is, and the amount of damage you do to good-faith applicants by making the process harder. For example, Florida required drug testing to receive welfare; that program cost more than it saved taxpayers in benefits. https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-money-by-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-data-shows/1225721/ https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-mone...
- rnd0 4y ago
  >But letting your system be abused by those that have no need for it is never a good use of funds. And yet, we have rich people using fraud to get government funds that they have absolutely no need for while the poor get exploited and starve. The abuse is going on A N Y W A Y; it's just that people get more indignant when one of the "poors" occasionally get that extra soda out of the machine.