re: .

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people living on less than $2 per day.

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Then these people are too lazy to catch the bus to the nearest gubment building. The way our fricked up system is set up nobody and I mean nobody (not even illegals) only get $2 a day in assistance.

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if they survive and can turn it around within 3 years they earn citizenship.

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I've been saying give Detroit to the Mexicans for years. Give them those jacked up old houses for nothing and see if they can do any better with that city, they can't do any worse.

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Demographics??

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No! We can't do that. That's racist!

Also Im guessing korkstand has never lived in Seattle...I have

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the question is what we do with those of lesser intelligence and culture, aka the "trailer park problem"

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you don't work, you don't eat.

I would be all for responsible welfare, but that's a pipedream

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We process those poors into food for other poors. I thought we covered this?

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still giggling

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long-term, that population is not going to have much participation in the economy

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the amount of discouraged workers can be reduced but by how much. Has the economic downturn created more generational welfare (i.e. discouraged worker goes on welfare for the first time and goes "hey, not too bad") but welfare will always create a class of "discouraged workers"...the abuse is out of hand and while it is a bigger problem in urban areas, I agree that it is a nation wide problem.

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we already see how much it has been affected by our current modernization of the economy

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the net effect on jobs is negative; however new jobs are created, more jobs are lost...prices go down and things become more affordable. The frictional unemployment it creates leads to new industries and businesses. My econ 101 professor had two of the simplest examples ever. Poison was big, then nirvana was big. Time for poison to find something else. Ice man has a job, fridge is invented, ice man finds a new business. The economy is no different than natural selection, you adapt to survive, and when one avenue closes off, people are forced to adapt and find new things, create new industries, etc. Government "job protection" stifles the advancement of the human race...fact.

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but the jobs are becoming very devalued AND with a glut of workers

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the constraints placed on citizens by the government is making this a problem. There are more barriers in place for people who want to start their own business. We're trending towards European socialism, where giant corporations (which liberals claim to loathe) are the only ones who can handle the tax and regulatory burdens of government and therefore have less competition. Liberals actually vote them a bigger share of the marketplace.

just my thoughts

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dont make the assumption that they are all discouraged becuase welfare is better than work

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I didn't, I only acknowledged that there is and has been for some time a sect of "discouraged workers" that aren't really discouraged workers...then I wondered if the economic downturn has added to this segment of the population via the introduction of the welfare lifestyle

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work simply isnt an option

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and government interference with the economy only worsens this plight. Moreover, government safety nets are so easily accessible and abused (and cannot exist any other way) that it further adds to the problem. I did interviews with homeless people working for some huckster where they would beg for money, give it to him and he would provide them a place to stay and food. The homeless people readily admitted that they don't want to work, and this guy was just keeping them in that mindset. We need to change the mindset. I think it would be cheaper to have better homeless shelters with systems in place for getting people back up on their feet and into the job market. Monitor their progress, etc. Some people don't want to be helped, and if they don't, then they can go. However, we have a generation, maybe more, of americans who have never been desperate for food. they live at the expense of the taxpayer and it is getting out of control.

When you're homeless, a minimum wage job and a studio apartment is better than sleeping on a cot at the shelter

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The root of the problem is that if you surround someone, anyone, with an environment of success, that person has a very good chance of also being successful. Similarly, if you put someone in a "trailer park" who doesn't know anything better, odds are that person won't be successful. There are exceptions to both, obviously, but this is how it works.

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it works that way because both groups exclude the other

those who are capable of success tend to group with similar people. those who are not, group with those who are not

this creates a culture of success and a culture of failure (or as i've called it for years, "lower class mentality")

i don't get why people are shocked when these groups (of unintelligent people that intentionally group themselves amongst similar people, creating a lower culture) fail to reach objective success as a group. stupid people with a shitty culture will not produce many success stories. that's the root of the problem.

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Cutting off the water to thousands of homes comes across as some sort of battle of attrition

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Detroit is a poor city that cannot afford to pay for services while not requiring payment for those services

when the water department goes belly up, nobody gets water. how is that fair to those who pay?

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And then some will say "frick this place" and leave, if they are able, further reducing the city's revenue

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how is the emigration of people using more than they pay for going to reduce net revenue?

getting those people to move will be positive for the city, i reckon

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This "tough love" isn't going to solve the underlying problem, and neither will more assistance. The assistance programs we do have probably need to be scrapped altogether, and replaced with a single streamlined program that encourages responsibility and contributing, rather than encouraging having children.

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you still get back to the real problem (which is being exacerbated by the continuing, rapid advancement of our economy in terms of technology): stupid people with a shitty culture will not produce many success stories. what we as a society do to/for them is the problem

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When you're homeless, a minimum wage job and a studio apartment is better than sleeping on a cot at the shelter

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you would think, but they dont think like you and me.