The Blue Board

Do you honestly think that abortion could ever become illegal in this country? To a point that you feel threatened that the gov't could take away that right? IMO that's no different than saying that Obama is going to take away everyone's guns. Both will never happen.

Absolutely. When a party is running presidential candidates who declare that overturning Roe v. Wade is one of their fundamental priorities, I absolutely believe abortion could become illegal.

The difference between that and the gun issue is that Obama has never said he "wants to take away everyone's guns", that's just paranoid reactions to the slightest suggestion of gun regulation.

We both recognize that our economy is heavily reliant on consumer spending.

Food stamps stimulate our economy by freeing up money for those who are practically guaranteed to go right back out and spend it on consumer products. Nobody on food stamps is taking the savings and putting it in the bank. All the food stamp money is effectively being used as a stimulus for consumer spending.

I don't remember that but I won't argue with you. I'm pro choice btw.

I've decided that the majority of tBB just hates poor people.

No, you're misunderstanding it. We can all agree that there are pretty much basic necessities that people need to live, right? Food, shelter, etc. There are also secondary products that people can give up, but most don't - cable tv, internet access, furniture, transportation, etc.

The point of this is to give money to people who make so little money that it's practically a guarantee that they'll go out and spend any extra money on more consumer products. Giving money to you or me wouldn't do anything because we'd be just as likely (if not more likely) to save it than spend it.

It's this whole bull ideology of "wealth = morality" that has been increasingly pervasive in some of the less-intelligent demographics in American society. It makes it a whole lot easier to be a selfish jerk towards poor people when you have some moral reasoning behind it (regardless of how illogical and idiotic that reasoning is.) If you can delude yourself into believing that being poor is solely a personal failing, you won't feel as bad about dismissing all poor people.

Exactly. There isn't some moral failing on the part of your average janitor, but the "wealth = morality" ideology has made it a lot more palatable for the vast majority of the populace when laws/policies are enacted that result in wage stagnation or even decreases for the members of society working jobs that are already low-paying.

No one is saying we don't need welfare reform; God knows the system needs to be fixed. But we've got to stop making such sweeping generalizations all the time. Saying no one on welfare is actually working a hard days work is just as bad as someone saying that all Christians want to burn gay people alive. Sure, it makes arguing easier when you generalize, but it doesn't make you correct and in the long run I think it does a lot of damage because people start to really believe it and then base decisions on it.

Let me ask you a question. When people do surveys and a update comes across the bottom of your tv screen saying "97% of Americans feel this or do that or want this etc", do you ever wonder why the fk you were never asked? It's because they did a "sweeping generalization" based on the answers of 1000 people. Which 1000? Where from, how old, what party are they for? Our entire system is set up to ask a few and run it through, ask a few run it through.

You said yesterday that you wanted drivers license test to be much more strict, why, because you wanted a certain level of knowledge and accountability to be met before setting kids free on the road. Well guess what, today I'm saying I want the welfare system to be more strict, why, because I want a certain level of knowledge and accountability to be met before giving money away that I helped work for.

I'm quite well versed in how surveys are done. I got my Masters in advertising for God's sake.

And like I said, I agree that the system needs reform. But part of that starts with not treating all poor people as if they're bad people.

Nice plug on your education now lets get one thing straight, I'm for govt assistants, I'm not for a system that doesn't weed out the abusers. You act as if I'm somehow part of the problem and you're here to educate the poor Mississippi boy on what he doesn't know. You don't like mass generalizations ehh? Could have fooled me.

You quoted me as saying "I want the welfare system to be more strict, why, because I want a certain level of knowledge and accountability to be met before giving money away that I helped work for."

Yes I clearly hate poor people. Smh

It was a joke, not an insult. 90% of what I did in grad school was conduct surveys.