Your Family Values Station
Stan has turned our bedroom clock radio to some unknown station, which sometimes he will turn on and I'll catch a line or two. Today the line went something like, "so this guy is just filthy, hasn't shaved in weeks, and has one tooth in his mouth...of course he's not going to get a job! So tell me why, if he can't even clean up a little bit and shave, why I, as a taxpayer, should have to pay anything to help this guy out..." (yes, the stress was heavily on 'anything')
First of all, if you claim the only thing standing between this guy and a nice, full time job is a shower and a shave, you're pretending to be stupid.
Second, here are some reasons why you might, as a taxpayer, consider helping this guy out:
-because you didn't want to fund his police department well enough to take the domestic violence in his home seriously
-because you didn't want to fund his school well enough to give him any extra help when he was still struggling to read in third grade
-because you didn't want to give his single mom enough of a 'handout' to keep her from working three jobs, leaving the boy to raise himself
-because you decided his family shouldn't have access to safe, decent housing
-because you didn't want your tax dollar to be spent on those pesky troubled teens
-because you wouldnt' give him access to the dental care that could have saved his other teeth; you believe health insurance should only protect those who are industrious enough to have nice, full-time jobs that bring in decent pay.
-because he never had access to good schools, and was never meant to dream of college
-becasue you thought the treatment program that could have stepped in at the moment he realized that alcohol was taking everything he had was liberal hogwash
-but not as liberal and hogwashy as that thing they wanted to do to teach adults to read, and train them for jobs.
All the money you saved during the man's life should surely be enough to give him a few dollars to ease his dying days, wouldn't you say?
And why didn't you want to fund any of those things? After all, you pay taxes either way...
-because you'd rather use it to help businesses
-because you'd rather use it to subsidize mortgages and education for people who can afford houses and college in the first place
-because you'd rather feed it to the military-industrial complex
-because you'd rather build the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.
All of these options are much more Family Values than helping actual families break out of cycles of poverty and abuse. (The other thing I know about the station is that it calls itself Your Family Values Station)
Here are some things to consider
-as much as we like to think of ourselves as an 'equal opportunity' country, it's just not true.
-the opportunities individuals have access to are largely determined by their 'place' in society, and the way we have structured our society
- Everything from the tax code to the way we fund schools ensures that the rich, if they can't get richer, at least stay rich, and if that means that the poor stay poor (or get poorer), then that's the way it has to be
- Capitalism, as great as it is, is by no means the Lord's Perfect Economic System. It has some very detrimental side effects, and part of the role of government is to alleviate those side effects (otherwise we're back to The Jungle, Social Darwinism, and the whole bit)
-I would venture that the people who balk at spending money on social programs are the very people benefiting from capitalism at the expense of those whom the programs would benefit.
-Many of the perks of the middle class depend on having lots of people who work for very low wages and without health insurance. (if they demand higher wages and health care, forget it! we'll get rid of their job altogether and buy from China!) In bigger, more expensive cities, this is often sub-subsistence level, exposing them to substandard housing, crime, and food insecurity. We demand this by spending our money the way we do.
-Since we, with our spending habits, demand that wretched people exist, and that they stay wretched, and since the level of wretchedness is determined largely by birth and enforced by all of societies institutions, maybe it wouln't be such a shameful thing to help these people out a little bit, even if some of them haven't shaved in a while.
First of all, if you claim the only thing standing between this guy and a nice, full time job is a shower and a shave, you're pretending to be stupid.
Second, here are some reasons why you might, as a taxpayer, consider helping this guy out:
-because you didn't want to fund his police department well enough to take the domestic violence in his home seriously
-because you didn't want to fund his school well enough to give him any extra help when he was still struggling to read in third grade
-because you didn't want to give his single mom enough of a 'handout' to keep her from working three jobs, leaving the boy to raise himself
-because you decided his family shouldn't have access to safe, decent housing
-because you didn't want your tax dollar to be spent on those pesky troubled teens
-because you wouldnt' give him access to the dental care that could have saved his other teeth; you believe health insurance should only protect those who are industrious enough to have nice, full-time jobs that bring in decent pay.
-because he never had access to good schools, and was never meant to dream of college
-becasue you thought the treatment program that could have stepped in at the moment he realized that alcohol was taking everything he had was liberal hogwash
-but not as liberal and hogwashy as that thing they wanted to do to teach adults to read, and train them for jobs.
All the money you saved during the man's life should surely be enough to give him a few dollars to ease his dying days, wouldn't you say?
And why didn't you want to fund any of those things? After all, you pay taxes either way...
-because you'd rather use it to help businesses
-because you'd rather use it to subsidize mortgages and education for people who can afford houses and college in the first place
-because you'd rather feed it to the military-industrial complex
-because you'd rather build the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska.
All of these options are much more Family Values than helping actual families break out of cycles of poverty and abuse. (The other thing I know about the station is that it calls itself Your Family Values Station)
Here are some things to consider
-as much as we like to think of ourselves as an 'equal opportunity' country, it's just not true.
-the opportunities individuals have access to are largely determined by their 'place' in society, and the way we have structured our society
- Everything from the tax code to the way we fund schools ensures that the rich, if they can't get richer, at least stay rich, and if that means that the poor stay poor (or get poorer), then that's the way it has to be
- Capitalism, as great as it is, is by no means the Lord's Perfect Economic System. It has some very detrimental side effects, and part of the role of government is to alleviate those side effects (otherwise we're back to The Jungle, Social Darwinism, and the whole bit)
-I would venture that the people who balk at spending money on social programs are the very people benefiting from capitalism at the expense of those whom the programs would benefit.
-Many of the perks of the middle class depend on having lots of people who work for very low wages and without health insurance. (if they demand higher wages and health care, forget it! we'll get rid of their job altogether and buy from China!) In bigger, more expensive cities, this is often sub-subsistence level, exposing them to substandard housing, crime, and food insecurity. We demand this by spending our money the way we do.
-Since we, with our spending habits, demand that wretched people exist, and that they stay wretched, and since the level of wretchedness is determined largely by birth and enforced by all of societies institutions, maybe it wouln't be such a shameful thing to help these people out a little bit, even if some of them haven't shaved in a while.
