I want my free stuff!!!!!!!!!!!

[Carl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8696070

n2doc  (1000+ posts)          Mon Jul-05-10 07:32 PM
Original message
Give the poor some money. And don't tell them what to do with it.
      

Poverty Rx: Cash Payments Are Best Way to Help Poor, Study Finds
20 hours ago


How do we end world poverty? Boy, that's a head-scratcher. It's right up there with "Does God exist?" and "What's the meaning of life?"

And here's a radical answer: Give the poor some money. And don't tell them what to do with it. Sounds crazy, right?

Not according to three scholars in the United Kingdom. In a new study titled "Just Give Money to the Poor," Joseph Hanlon, Armando Barrientos and David Hulme argue that giving small amounts of cash on a regular basis to poor people may actually be the most effective way to lift developing countries out of poverty.

The scholars ground their argument in reams of empirical data gathered from cash transfer programs across the developing world. They cite programs like India's National Employment Guarantee Act, which provides 100 days of employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household willing to perform unskilled manual "public works" at the statutory minimum wage. Or Brazil's Bolsa Família program, which provides financial aid to indigent Brazilian families on the condition that their children attend school and are vaccinated.


more

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/04/poverty-rx-cash

Curmudgeoness (252 posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 07:53 PM
Response to Original message
8. This may work in some instances, but my experience this weekend
   says this doesn't always work. An out of work neighbor asked to borrow $20 to buy groceries yesterday. Today she had cigarettes and was out buying ice cream from one of those trucks with the tunes that crawl around the neighborhood, charging the highest prices for a popsicle. I did not tell her what to do with the money, but I am disappointed in her choices. :<
   

Bad speak.

miscsoc  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 08:21 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. I wouldn't hold it against her.
   She lied a bit, but if you need to borrow twenty bucks from your neighbour you are in a ****ed situation and you can see how a person in such a situation would want a smoke and even tell a lie to get a pack. It's not a lot of money. Be saddened and worried, but not pissed.
   

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
12. Remember back when Bush was mailing $600 and $1200 dollar checks to us?
   Edited on Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM by NNN0LHI
Chump change. And I was asking why not $6000 and $12,000 dollars checks instead? Something that could really change a persons life? Allow them to get a new high efficiency furnace, get some new windows, pay some bills off or whatever they wanted?

And everyone thought I was nuts back then. Even though the wealthy were getting huge tax cuts at the same time totaling trillions of dollars.

And the Republicans didn't even want to give the $600 and $1200 dollar checks to us. The Dems had to fight for that to be added on. Bush wanted it just for the wealthy.

Don

Economics 101 says you are an idiot Don.

Posting your foolishness at the DUmp says you are a ignorant dumb effing idiot Don.

FooshIt (19 posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. we need to think bigger
   can you imagine the direct impact we could do with 20,000$ checks. This would really allow for people to break out of the cycle of poverty. This is a down payment on a house or health insurance or a car, something that many people can only dream of.

You would pay the rest how?

Luminous Animal  (1000+ posts)          Sun Jul-11-10 04:35 PM
Response to Original message
39. I've long been an advocate for a no-strings guaranteed income at a living wage.
   Along with universal health care, it would provide nearly all U.S. citizens with more freedom than they've experienced. It would give people career mobility, increase opportunities for entrepreneurial and creative pursuits, and give labor more clout in the workplace.


I refuse to fret over the small percentage that will squander any opportunities afforded by economic freedom. There are already elaborate scams being practiced to divert food and housing assistance towards the drugs of ones choice. I suspect that a guaranteed income would neither increase or decrease addiction.

A guaranteed income would: dismantle the punitive social services apparatus, obliterate the obscene tax credits handed out to the so-called food industry... a scheme that allows corporations to recoup the loss of ill-conceived non-nutritious products, dismantle the poverty-pimp industry and dismantle the criminal justice apparatus that currently attempts to contain welfare fraud.

Please tell us how it is paid for.

[Mike220]

And then you DUmbasses will bitch that a ham sandwich costs $150 while a six pack of beer will cost twice that.

You idiots never think, do you? Just gimme, gimme, gimme. And you wonder why we call you DUmbasses.

[LC EFA]

Great Ideaâ„¢. Just give out cash with no strings attached.

These people are completely ignorant of human nature.

20K handed out would be gone in next to no time - and bet is that it wouldn't go to a "high efficiency furnace" or training or anything likely to have any lasting or positive effect on the people receiving it.

The part that doesn't go to buying a new fishing boat for a Colombian coke lord will come straight back in the form of sin taxes.

[Ballygrl]

You know guys, reading all this DU nonsense not only gives me a headache at times, but I feel contempt for a large segment of Americans, something I never thought I would feel for so many. How much stupid can a person take everyday? Where would these idiots get the money to do all of this? from the rest of us. I swear these people suffer from stunted growth.

[Ballygrl]

Great Ideaâ„¢. Just give out cash with no strings attached.

These people are completely ignorant of human nature.

20K handed out would be gone in next to no time - and bet is that it wouldn't go to a "high efficiency furnace" or training or anything likely to have any lasting or positive effect on the people receiving it.

The part that doesn't go to buying a new fishing boat for a Colombian coke lord will come straight back in the form of sin taxes.

It'll just prove that some people will get richer because they would be smart with the money, and most of the people who are poor will still be poor because they'll just go out and blow the money and not put something aside for when it's needed.

[Ballygrl]

Well the good news at the link the DU OP gave is showing a majority of comments that are against what the author wrote about and they're receiving overwhlelming thumbs up, as opposed to the fools at DU who love this idea.

[Mike220]

I just have to look at my sister the welfare queen to figure out what would happen here. She got $40 grand back in May from her accident, bought a car, a motorcycle and paid a years rent on an apartment, all of which is ok. But the other 20 grand or so she and her piece of shit husband blew in Vegas in two days.

[Celtic Rose]

I actually like India's solution.  Guarantee people 100 days of minimum wage work doing manual labor. Litter would get picked up, crops could be picked, etc.  The real question is, how many people are to lazy to do manual labor for minimum wage.  They prefer the DUmmie's solution, money for nothing.  

[DumbAss Tanker]

Actually the Democrats themselves have set up conditions for defining 'Poverty' that ensure it can never be cured, since by their measure at least everyone below a given line (varying between the boundary of the lowest third to lowest quintile in income) is perforce 'Impoverished,' without regard to the standard of living they enjoy or the amount of consumer amenities they have or to which they have access.  There is, therefore, no damned point whatsoever in taking any Democrat plan to raise them up seriously, since the same proportion of the population will be below the 'Poverty line' not matter how much they have.

[AprilRazz]

This reminds me of the cards that were given to the Katrina refugees. How much taxpayer money went to buy Coach purses and trips to the strip club?

[Ballygrl]

According to the Census Bureau here's how the poor in America live.

Just an excerpt you can read the rest at the link:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2007/08/How-Poor-Are-Americas-Poor-Examining-the-Plague-of-Poverty-in-America

Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
 
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded; two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
 
The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the averagecitizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

[BEG]

I just have to look at my sister the welfare queen to figure out what would happen here. She got $40 grand back in May from her accident, bought a car, a motorcycle and paid a years rent on an apartment, all of which is ok. But the other 20 grand or so she and her piece of shit husband blew in Vegas in two days.

My high school friend's ex-husband won $1.2 million in Vegas about 10 years ago. It was all gone in less than two years. 

[Chris_]

How about not giving the "poor" money and letting them figure out how to feed themselves?  If they end up dying, because they couldn't support themselves, that would take care of our problem.... correct?

I know.  That sounds harsh, but our family struggles at times, but you don't see us crying to the government to help us out.  We're doing just fine.

[diesel driver]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8696070

Please tell us how it is paid for.

That's an easy one:

Tax the rich.  It's the universal Dim/DUmmie answer for all financial woes....

Now when we run out of "rich", DUmmies will be "up a creek" real quick....

[LC EFA]

That's an easy one:

Tax the rich.  It's the universal Dim/DUmmie answer for all financial woes....

Now when we run out of "rich", DUmmies will be "up a creek" real quick....

Right after they finally discover that "rich" is a very subjective term.

[PatriotGame]

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
12. Remember back when Bush was mailing $600 and $1200 dollar checks to us?
   Edited on Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM by NNN0LHI
Chump change. And I was asking why not $6000 and $12,000 dollars checks instead? Something that could really change a persons life?

Sorry DUmmy Don, 600 bucks is all you get. You'll just have to settle for the brown label generic weed instead of the high grade designer deluxe bud weed you would buy with the 6000 bucks.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Luminous Animal  (1000+ posts)         
Sun Jul-11-10 04:35 PM
Response to Original message
39. I've long been an advocate for a no-strings guaranteed income at a living wage

.

Me too, I think we should pay all the pot-smoking, drunk losers who aren't even willing to work a "living wage".

[JohnnyReb]

.

Me too, I think we should pay all the pot-smoking, drunk losers who aren't even willing to work a "living wage".

A living wage for a lively effort.....wait a minute.....that's what we have now and DUmmies don't like it.

[NHSparky]

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
12. Remember back when Bush was mailing $600 and $1200 dollar checks to us?
   Edited on Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM by NNN0LHI
Chump change. And I was asking why not $6000 and $12,000 dollars checks instead? Something that could really change a persons life?

Dear dipshit,

If Bush only wanted to give them to "rich" people, how come I didn't get one in 2008?  Oh yeah--because I made too much money.

[DumbAss Tanker]

NNN0LHI  (1000+ posts)        Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
12. Remember back when Bush was mailing $600 and $1200 dollar checks to us?
   Edited on Mon Jul-05-10 08:09 PM by NNN0LHI
Chump change.

Oh, say, how much has Prez-e-dent Obama sent you since he was elected, you ignorant dipshit...?

 

 

[JohnnyReb]

Oh, say, how much has Prez-e-dent Obama sent you since he was elected, you ignorant dipshit...?

 

 

Oh I don't know but I'm sure we'll get a bill for it.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Oh I don't know but I'm sure we'll get a bill for it.

If it works like his car stimulus or mortgage aid programs, 1,000 of them will get a check for $100 each and the total cost of the program will be 3.5 billion dollars, then Gibbs will declare it an incredible success.

 

[jukin]

Obama gave working people a whole $300 one time tax credit. By your staandards standards obama cares 25% as much as Bush.

[Karin]

Didn't zero give us $13 extra dollars every two weeks....and then taxed us on it at year end? 

[NHSparky]

Obama gave working people a whole $300 one time tax credit. By your staandards standards obama cares 25% as much as Bush.

Nope--wasn't even that.  It was lowering of the payroll deduction.  However, the taxes were still in place, meaning you either got less of a refund, or owed more this past year.