Quote:
Originally Posted by thesloppy
I really only take umbrage with the suggestion that there's a whole class of unemployed people are sitting around collecting unemployment, turning down jobs and living high-on-the-hog, doing nothing & 'wasting' those benefits and our tax dollars by extension.
Much like Swaggs point above, I imagine lots of people areusing those expanded & extended benefits to look for better opportunities outside of the minimum wage pool, and I don't consider that a wasted cost, even if it keeps plenty of folks out of the job pool for longer than the usual and/or doesn't actually result in any improvement for some/most at the end. I'm sure plenty of people are abusing the system in earnest as well, but perfect shouldn't be the enemy of good, especially in the case of US income equality.
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I typed out a longer post earlier, but didn't post because I didn't like the way it would have sounded, but one point from it was that the advocates of cutting the budget/small government have done a remarkable job over the last 30-40 (maybe longer?) years of making the general public dislike those of us that use gov't assistance and welfare programs. And they have done it effectively by creating concepts like "welfare queens," "lazy millenials," people that have iPhones or Nike sneakers but don't work or people that buy things that they shouldn't with food stamps. Easily identifiable stereotypes that make middle and lower-middle class people resent poor people for having things that they have to work for to obtain.
Getting middle and lower-middle class folks on board with that concept has made the strange bedfellows of aligning them with 'job creators' over improving their own wages and standards of living. It seems like most people are starting to realize that trickle-down economics may grow the economy but does not benefit the majority of the public and that it is more effective to get money into the hands of the poor and middle class, because they will spend it. At this point, there are two or three generations of Americans that no longer trust that government can be effective or useful and would rather see it cut down to bare bones than to see a well functioning government (whether small or large, or federal or state oriented).