Essential Economics for Politicians

Booter said:
3 myths about the poor that Republicans are using to support slashing US safety net

Most welfare recipients are makers not takers
The first myth, that people who receive public benefits are “takers” rather than “makers,” is flatly untrue for the vast majority of working-age recipients.

In early December, House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “We have a welfare system that’s trapping people in poverty and effectively paying people not to work.”

Not true. Welfare – officially called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families – has required work as a condition of eligibility since then-President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law in 1996. And the earned income tax credit, a tax credit for low- and moderate-income workers, by definition, supports only people who work.

Workers apply for public benefits because they need assistance to make ends meet. American workers are among the most productive in the world, but over the last 40 years the bottom half of income earners have seen no income growth. As a result, since 1973, worker productivity has grown almost six times faster than wages.

What the needy deserve

The second myth is that low-income Americans do not deserve a helping hand.

This idea derives from our belief that the U.S. is a meritocracy where the most deserving rise to the top. Yet where a person ends up on the income ladder is tied to where they started out.

Indeed, America is not nearly as socially mobile as we like to think. Forty percent of Americans born into the bottom-income quintile – the poorest 20 percent – will stay there. And the same “stickiness” exists in the top quintile.

As for people born into the middle class, only 20 percent will ascend to the top quintile in their lifetimes.

The third myth is that government assistance is a waste of money and doesn’t accomplish its goals.

In fact, poverty rates would double without the safety net, to say nothing of human suffering. Last year, the safety net lifted 38 million people, including 8 million children, out of poverty.

The facts of welfare
In trotting out these myths, Republican lawmakers are also tapping into long-standing racist stereotypes about who receives support. For instance, the “welfare queen” – a code word for an African-American woman with too many children who refuses to work – is a fiction.

The facts of welfare are that most recipients are white, families that receive aid are smaller on average than other families and the program requires recipients to work and is tiny in relation to the overall federal budget – about half a percent. Yet, the welfare queen is an archetype invoked to generate public antagonism against the safety net. Expect her to make frequent appearances in the months to come.

Americans should demand fact-based justifications for tax and entitlement reforms. It is time to retire the welfare queen and related tropes that paint needy Americans as undeserving.

http://theconversation.com/3-myths-...using-to-support-slashing-us-safety-net-89048
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The Obama administration effectively gutted the law’s requirements in July 2012 when it released a policy directive through the Department of Health and Human Services that allowed states to waive the TANF program’s work requirements.

https://www.heritage.org/welfare/co...irements-welfare-why-trump-right-restore-them
 
Bruddah IZ said:
I pay her and she pays the bank plus nets some income. Are you netting some income from the house you live in?
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Nope. Building millions of equity for myself while I pay every month like you do. You build equity for someone else while you pay every month.
You might want to re-consider that approach.
I’d loan you the down payment, but from reading your posts you don’t strike me as a guy who would take responsibility for repaying a loan.
 
messy said:
Nope. Building millions of equity for myself while I pay every month like you do. You build equity for someone else while you pay every month.
You might want to re-consider that approach.
I’d loan you the down payment, but from reading your posts you don’t strike me as a guy who would take responsibility for repaying a loan.
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You could make him buy PMI.
 
messy said:
Nope. Building millions of equity for myself while I pay every month like you do. You build equity for someone else while you pay every month.
You might want to re-consider that approach.
I’d loan you the down payment, but from reading your posts you don’t strike me as a guy who would take responsibility for repaying a loan.
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Your simulation allows you to lend downpayments? Is that like a community chest thing? Kek!
 
messy said:
Nope. Building millions of equity for myself while I pay every month like you do. You build equity for someone else while you pay every month.
You might want to re-consider that approach.
I’d loan you the down payment, but from reading your posts you don’t strike me as a guy who would take responsibility for repaying a loan.
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BTW, you had me at “Nope”.
 
messy said:
She has you to pay the liability though, while she keeps the asset. I don’t do that. Sucker.
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The only sucker here is you Legend/Messy. How lonely and desperate are you to not only have three screen names but to be commenting and liking your own post?

You fail...
 
messy said:
Nope. Building millions of equity for myself while I pay every month like you do. You build equity for someone else while you pay every month.
You might want to re-consider that approach.
I’d loan you the down payment, but from reading your posts you don’t strike me as a guy who would take responsibility for repaying a loan.
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Says the dishonest poster that needs more than 1 identity.
 
Bruddah IZ said:
Your simulation allows you to lend downpayments? Is that like a community chest thing? Kek!
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I once loaned a down payment to an employee about 15 years ago. He bought for 575. Paid me back timely and now the house is worth about 1.5. He’s been with me 20 years now. You should borrow a down payment from somebody, but not me...somebody who trusts you to repay. Oops...
 
messy said:
3? I thought 2...what’s the third? And aren’t you also GoBear?
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Keep trying Sunshine and try to keep up. You must be one desperate dude...

Now run along and have have a conversation with other accounts. Seriously dude, you liked your own comments from your other accounts?

Loser..
 
Multi Sport said:
Keep trying Sunshine and try to keep up. You must be one desperate dude...

Now run along and have have a conversation with other accounts. Seriously dude, you liked your own comments from your other accounts?

Loser..
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Is Sunshine the third one? What’s the third one? Cat got your tongue? Can your “family” help out?
 
messy said:
Is Sunshine the third one? What’s the third one? Cat got your tongue? Can your “family” help out?
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Keep trying Sunshine. Maybe Legend can jump in and help you out? You certainly need all the help ypu can get. Is that why you created those other accounts because you need the help? Oh my..

Fail!
 
Multi Sport said:
Keep trying Sunshine. Maybe Legend can jump in and help you out? You certainly need all the help ypu can get. Is that why you created those other accounts because you need the help? Oh my..

Fail!
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Cat got your tongue? Who’s the third? What other accounts, plural, do I have, GoBear?
 
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