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The Poor Have the Highest Rate of Return

Jythier

Join Date 02/2003

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The Poor Have the Highest Rate of Return

A man gives his servants different amounts of money to invest. To one, he gives 50,000. To the second, 20,000. And to the third, 10,000.

He leaves for a couple years, and comes back. The one he gave 50k now has 100k. He says, woohoo.
The one he gave 20k now has 40k. He says, great job.
The third had still 10k, because he buried it in a mayonaisse jar in the back yard.

So, he takes 20k from the first, 10k from the second, and gives 5k to the third. The remaining 25k is given to the high fructose corn syrup industry.

At least, that's what the government would do.

In the Bible version, the 10k was taken away from the servant and given to the richest.

This is pretty powerful proof that entitlements and welfare are not the way to go. Redistribution of wealth is great, as long as it's taking from those who do not know what to do with it and given to those who can handle it well.

Note that nothing was taken from or given to the middle servant.

We can't get rid of taxes altogether, because they are needed to take the money of many and pool it to solve common problems and provide for common needs. But that is ALL a government should be doing.

Giving money to people who can't handle it properly is bad news. It's already biting us in the butt. Often it's not even spent on food or housing, and goes to something else instead. If you give money to people for nothing, they will continue to give you nothing. It's the best return on investment ever. I give you nothing, and you give me something, is an infinite rate of return.

I think we need to make those on welfare do something for their food and housing, and give them food and housing instead of money. Community service hours springs to mind. I'm sure there are those who are able to work, but don't. If they had to do community service in exchange for living in a really bad place to live, perhaps they would rather get a job, so they could afford a better place.

Welfare for those who cannot work is still needed, but I think private charity can pick up the slack there, by doing their hours for them or some other way.

It should always be worse to be on welfare than to work, and it should always be worse to have additional children in this situation.

Currently we don't have the ability to put this system into place.

Please, let me know the pitfalls of this idea.

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Birth control has a very, very, very, very, veeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrry low failure rate when used properly.

no arguement but it is still only 98% for sure.

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How can we expect people to learn to survive when all we keep doing is teaching them to depend on others?

I don't know what the health and human services dept. does for the poor where you're from, up here in MN. people can only get assistance for so long. If they have another kid, too bad, they have to work. They're required to work to get assistance in the form of childcare, food supplements, and some medical care for the kid/kids.

The ones that are mentally ill, and/or physically disabled can get help. Many of the institutions that used to house the mentally ill have closed, so there's even more homeless people now. That created a whole new set of problems for the police, communities, ect.

You see in the end this debate is easily ended, the woman should have never gotten pregnant (not by rape) in the first place. But what people like you want is to create a system designed to help the idiots of this society

AHhhhh, excuse me, but.....how about you say the MAN shouldn't have gotten her pregnant?? I reallly believe that BOTH parties have a responsibilty here! And whatta ya mean? "people like you?"????? what kind of people is THAT?

Local put forth some really good ideas.

A true "idiot" is someone that has an extremely low IQ, not someone that's made stupid choices. BIG difference.

Just MY 2 cents worth on a Saturday morning.

And another thing, the truly poor have the odds stacked against them. There can be two working adults in the family, just earning enough to pay the rent, electric, buy groceries, maybe have a phone. Their car would be rundown, and the rising cost of gasoline makes it difficult to get to work. Their combined income makes it difficult to get financial assistance, probably puts them right on the border of getting medical coverage for the kids, and not a hope of coverage for them.

This couple is honest, hardworking, and their true hope is education, which can lead to a better income. Many programs that would help them are now being slashed.....

They can get groceries once a month from a local food shelf, and for $12.00 can get "Ruby's Pantry food. How can anyone consider a family like this as "using the system" or having a high rate of return?

I have a dislike myself for anyone "using" the system to get all they can. There just isn't the "return" on using the system anymore! It's been tightened up, least it has here in MN.

Good article!

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Thanks for the thoughts on the MN system, I'm glad it's being tightened up. Just remember... $8 per hour for two full time incomes is about $30k. $10 will get you close to $40k.

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"I have a dislike myself for anyone "using" the system to get all they can.

Not like you would ever do such a thing, hmmm trudy?"

I know I would use it. But I wouldn't sabotage my life in order to qualify.

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i agree with this one but with the income tax and economy as it is and has been for 16 years or more you have to have two incomes for a family usually

No, you don't, danielost. That is a myth.

The fact is, people CHOOSE to be two income families. Sometimes for valid reasons, but often because they couldn't possibly think that having a 13 inch TV with NO cable or antenna would be a possibility. Gotta have a $150 a month cable bill to get all the premiums, and pay an additional $50 a month for the payments on the big screen TV!

Two incomes also usually means two cars. There's a major added cost right there.

It's all about choices, danielost. People CAN make choices to be a single income family, they just may have to sacrifice some wants to do it.

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NO cable or antenna

you mean you can't afford a 10 dollar antenna then you need a second income. by the way a two income family doesnt mean that both parents work. it means two jobs are being worked.

(Citizen)Gideon MacLeish

yes but you would have a hard time feeding me i don't eat beans or rice. i don't like beans that is all my dad ever cooked because that was all he knew to cook. and i usually don't like rice because it isn't cooked done.

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you mean you can't afford a 10 dollar antenna then you need a second income. by the way a two income family doesnt mean that both parents work. it means two jobs are being worked.

A ten dollar antenna doesn't have a 70 mile range, danielost!

Did I ever say ALL we eat are beans and rice? Nope, I didn't. Because we eat a hell of a lot more varied of a diet than that, danielost! At one time in the past I created a sample menu for $10 a day. I'm not going to do it again, because I proved my point. Living on one person's income does NOT mean starving to death!

We don't have an xbox, playstation or wii, all of our computers are cannibalized (we have FIVE working computers, just for the record...hardly luddites here...and less than $500 invested in all of those computers put together...and a whole slew of parts besides!), and we primarily use one car (we actually own a second, but it is used exclusively for hauling). We buy everything on sale. For example, we just purchased 10 CASES of notebooks (that's 240 notebooks) for the school year at 10 cents each. We also purchased pens, pencils, crayons and glue to get us through the school year and spent less than $75 all told, for 4 school aged children. I buy my rice and beans in 10 to 20 pound bags, we buy frozen leg quarters at 39 cents a pound, we buy ground turkey instead of hamburger, saving 30-50 cents a pound. I've listed all of this before, danielost, but you weren't here when I did.

Despite this all, I make well under the median income. But my family is one of my top priorities, not a bunch of meaningless "things"!

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we buy ground turkey

when i was a kid this was higher priced and i never liked the bones.

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Why was there bones in your GROUND turkey?

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because at least when they began to ground turkey they left the bones in.

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