Welfare, Food stamps, Cash Assistance, Medicaid, SSI....these public assistance programs are broken.
Why does this system seem to penalize the people that work to get off the system? Why does the system reward failure.
I knew a lady that was the primary care giver for her grandchildren and recieved money and assistance from the state for it. Her grandson had a medical condition that required sleep with a feeding tube, he was also prone to having seizures. The grandmother actually had to turn down hours at work to maintain a certain level of income or lose the Medicaid benefits that paid for her grandsons medical costs. The system actually required her to remain amongst the working poor because any increased income would not be able to make up for the new expenses caused by losing her Medicaid coverage.
Food stamp determination only consider your gross income. How many people out there actually see that money, and why don't food stamp determinations go by actual take home pay. Take home pay is after all what you have left for rent, food, phone, ect. How many people out there have pay check garnishments that take out large sums of money that seriously impact a persons ability to survive. How many people have serious work related expenses that are not factored into your pay rate? Why does a ten cent an hour raise have to cost you your food stamp benefits?
The saying used to go....Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.
Now that saying goes. Give a man a fish and he is a lazy bum on welfare that needs to be kicked off. Teach a man to fish and you can charge him for a rod, reel, line, hook, those little weights, that float-y thing, and bait for the rest of his life.
Isn't there a better way that rewards achievement and encourages people to better them selves?
Here is a suggested equation for food stamp benefits.
1/3 of monthly living wage = 1/3 of average monthly wages + (ax^2+bx+c)
where ax^2+bx+c = 0 when 1/3 of average monthly wages = 1/3 of monthly living wage
and where x=.1n
n=10(living wage-actual wage)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Virg for Michigan
On Tuesday Virg Bernero won the Democratic Primary for Governor of Michigan.
I like this guy!!!
1. He was noted in a past issue of The Nation as supporting the creation of a State run bank. The idea being that state pension funds, economic investment programs, and even student loans would no longer have to be run through private banks, saving state tax payer money from the greasy palms of Wall Street Bankers.
2. He is a strong supporter of equality, and has consistently supported the Michigan GLBT community.
3. You may have seen him on tv back during the bailout days fighting the conservative pundits what would of watched the heart of American Manufacturing, i.e. GM and Chrysler, disintegrate along with millions of jobs that America's hardest working people count on for a living.
I have liked this guy since the first time I read anything about him in The Nation.
He has the support of Michigan's labor unions, and Gay and Lesbian organizations.
This guy gives me the vibe of being an Obama style Democrat and I like it.
I like Virg Bernero
I like this guy!!!
1. He was noted in a past issue of The Nation as supporting the creation of a State run bank. The idea being that state pension funds, economic investment programs, and even student loans would no longer have to be run through private banks, saving state tax payer money from the greasy palms of Wall Street Bankers.
2. He is a strong supporter of equality, and has consistently supported the Michigan GLBT community.
3. You may have seen him on tv back during the bailout days fighting the conservative pundits what would of watched the heart of American Manufacturing, i.e. GM and Chrysler, disintegrate along with millions of jobs that America's hardest working people count on for a living.
I have liked this guy since the first time I read anything about him in The Nation.
He has the support of Michigan's labor unions, and Gay and Lesbian organizations.
This guy gives me the vibe of being an Obama style Democrat and I like it.
I like Virg Bernero
Actual American History, vs. American History according to Republicans
I recently finished reading the book, Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara. This book was a fictional but historically accurate account of the American Revolution from 1770 to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th 1776. It was only fictional in that the author imagined dialog between all the characters involved, but otherwise stuck to the historical facts and written records of the time.
I can not say for certain who accurate the all the dialog of the story, or even each persons intentions actually are, but the book gives an excellent portrayal of what the mostly likely intentions of the fathers of the revolution was.
With that said this book really is eye opening about the total disregard for actual American history for the sake of current political gain. Mostly I am talking about the Tea Party.
When I was a boy in school we were taught about the Boston Tea Party in the same paragraph of our text books as the phrase, "No taxation without representation." The reality is that far more then one sentence separated those two events. The colonies had actually stopped calls of no taxation long before the Boston Tea Party. In fact after the Stamp Act had been defeated the calls of no taxation ended until the Townshend Act was enacted and then repealed. The time between, "No taxation." and the Boston Tea Party? Around 10 years!
It is also worth noting that England did away with both the Stamp Act and The Townshend, not because of colonial pressure but mostly because the costs of collecting the taxes would be greater than what the taxes would bring in. Also true is that Parliment and King George were only attemping to recover the cost of the French and Indian War which granted the colonies peace and safety along the Indian frontier.
But back to the tea party.
The Boston Tea Party had nothing to do with taxes. It had everything to do with government enforced corporate control over consumer goods, out sourcing, and trade deficits. The tea tax was a left over of the Townshend Act that was left in tact while all the rest of the act was repealed. No one cared about it until Boston because smugglers did quite well bringing in tea through the black market and avoiding the tea tax.
Then the king hears wind that the East India Company is on hard times and decides that he will have British tea sent directly to the colonies through the East India Company with no middle men. The result they expected would be cheaper tea prices in the colonies, compliance with the tea tax (which would still of allowed the tea to be sold below black market prices), and rebuilding the British Treasury.
The colonies refusal to comply was all because they did not agree with a policy that was in effect a government mandated monopoly on a commodity. The tax was not the issue. The tea was subsequently dumped in to Boston Harbor to prevent the British Army from forcibly unloading the tea which the Royal Governor of Massachusetts had given orders to do the following day.
I hope others can see how these facts fly in the face of the history others would have you believe, because I have been noticing how our history is being rewritten to fit a certain political view point, and that is a frightening Orwellian idea.
I can not say for certain who accurate the all the dialog of the story, or even each persons intentions actually are, but the book gives an excellent portrayal of what the mostly likely intentions of the fathers of the revolution was.
With that said this book really is eye opening about the total disregard for actual American history for the sake of current political gain. Mostly I am talking about the Tea Party.
When I was a boy in school we were taught about the Boston Tea Party in the same paragraph of our text books as the phrase, "No taxation without representation." The reality is that far more then one sentence separated those two events. The colonies had actually stopped calls of no taxation long before the Boston Tea Party. In fact after the Stamp Act had been defeated the calls of no taxation ended until the Townshend Act was enacted and then repealed. The time between, "No taxation." and the Boston Tea Party? Around 10 years!
It is also worth noting that England did away with both the Stamp Act and The Townshend, not because of colonial pressure but mostly because the costs of collecting the taxes would be greater than what the taxes would bring in. Also true is that Parliment and King George were only attemping to recover the cost of the French and Indian War which granted the colonies peace and safety along the Indian frontier.
But back to the tea party.
The Boston Tea Party had nothing to do with taxes. It had everything to do with government enforced corporate control over consumer goods, out sourcing, and trade deficits. The tea tax was a left over of the Townshend Act that was left in tact while all the rest of the act was repealed. No one cared about it until Boston because smugglers did quite well bringing in tea through the black market and avoiding the tea tax.
Then the king hears wind that the East India Company is on hard times and decides that he will have British tea sent directly to the colonies through the East India Company with no middle men. The result they expected would be cheaper tea prices in the colonies, compliance with the tea tax (which would still of allowed the tea to be sold below black market prices), and rebuilding the British Treasury.
The colonies refusal to comply was all because they did not agree with a policy that was in effect a government mandated monopoly on a commodity. The tax was not the issue. The tea was subsequently dumped in to Boston Harbor to prevent the British Army from forcibly unloading the tea which the Royal Governor of Massachusetts had given orders to do the following day.
I hope others can see how these facts fly in the face of the history others would have you believe, because I have been noticing how our history is being rewritten to fit a certain political view point, and that is a frightening Orwellian idea.
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