© 2013 Rick Adamson
By Rick Adamson 10.14.13
Fox News commentator former Governor Mike Huckabee recently explained how the Obama
welfare state works to undermine America's culture of self-reliance. According
to Huckabee, the Senate Budget Committee reported that in fiscal year 2011,
between food stamps, housing support, child care, Medicaid and other benefits,
the average U.S. household below the poverty line received $168 a day in government support.
What's the problem with that much support?
According to Huckabee, the median household income inAmerica
To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30 an hour for a 40-hour week, while the average job pays $25 an hour. And the person who works also has to pay taxes, which drops his pay to $21 an hour.
It's no wonder that welfare is now the biggest part of the budget, more than Social Security or defense. And, as Huckabee so sagely observed, why would anyone want to get off welfare when working pays $9 an hour less?
What's the problem with that much support?
According to Huckabee, the median household income in
To put it another way, being on welfare now pays the equivalent of $30 an hour for a 40-hour week, while the average job pays $25 an hour. And the person who works also has to pay taxes, which drops his pay to $21 an hour.
It's no wonder that welfare is now the biggest part of the budget, more than Social Security or defense. And, as Huckabee so sagely observed, why would anyone want to get off welfare when working pays $9 an hour less?
This is what happens when you start “helping” people.
It soon gets to where the “helping” is being used to buy votes and the number
of people needing “help” increases to the point no one wants to work. AND
THAT my friends is the end of our country. Only a fool or a Democrat
can’t see that.
See a video by Judge
Judy Sheindlin on taking personal responsibility.
The federal government has “77
different means-tested social welfare programs.
To read a related article from the Washington Post,
click here.
Obviously we need a safety net that helps people when they
are down. But those programs should not
go own forever. There should be work
rules attached and retraining programs available. No more of this multigenerational welfare or
paying mothers to have more babies that they take care of. And recipients should never never receive
benefits that exceed the average pay for a working American.
Our entitlement programs are on track to consume 80+ percent
of the entire budget by 2020, so we must get serious about reforming our
systems by eliminating fraud, duplication and failing programs. We should
realize that the current systems have failed us (they have not reduced the poor
population nor have they eliminated the ghettos in our major cities – despite
spending approximately $14 trillion on welfare since the Great Society came
into existence). Poverty today is about where it was in the 1960’s when many of
the current programs were put in place. We need to try a new approach like
developing programs that do not breakup families or encourage lifelong
dependence.
Too many of our citizens make bad decisions about their
skills and/or education and have the expectation that the Government will take
care of them. Our politicians talk about the importance of education all
of the time. It is important but it is not something that can be fixed by
throwing more and more money at it, especially from Washington .
If a person does not want an education (here I am thinking of the almost
30 percent high school drop out rate) we can not force it on them. We
hear a lot of talk lately about teachers, good teachers. I think they are
getting a bad wrap because if their students do not want to learn they will
not. What about the family’s responsibility?
It is a cultural problem!
We have to teach our folks that it is their personal responsibility
to acquire a skill or an education so that the can take care of themselves and
their children. If they make bad
decisions about acquiring a skill and/or education then there will be
consequences and the rest of us are not obligated to take care of them. The
consequences are long hours and low pay, it is each individual’s decision.
Here is a video by John Stossel concerning welfare. Click here
Due to the rapid change in technology Fox news just reported
that 47 percent of current jobs may be replaced by automation within 20 years.
Now if that is true what do you suppose all of those people will be doing? The will have to be retrained for the higher
paying jobs like operating all of those robots. Or, they will be unemployed,
maybe forever.
One might wonder what kind of jobs will be available in 20
years. Well, I would guess:
The professions
Construction
Hospitality
Sophisticated design jobs (Apple)
Sophisticated manufacturing
Handy man including yard work
Government
Retail
And others
What ever is left, our folks must be trained in one of those
areas or they will not have a job. It is
the individual’s responsibility to acquire the skills he or she needs to get
the job they want. The consequences of
not doing so will be long hours and low pay.
It is truly a shame that we have to recruit highly qualified
immigrants to fill many of our high skill jobs while so many of our citizens
sit back and collect welfare.
We have a cultural problem!
No comments:
Post a Comment