Should welfare recipients be allowed to vote?
60% of Americans will need some financial assistance during their lifetimes… food stamps, welfare, etc.
The vast majority of people on welfare are women and children.
So no, children should not be allowed to vote. Everyone else, okay.
yes they should…all people vote with their wallet…its to be expected that welfare recipients will vote with who is giving them more welfare just as a rich guy is going to vote for who is giving them the biggest tax break…they shouldnt get punished for being on welfare (i.e. hving their vote taken away), but there should be discouragments to staying on welfare.
felons shouldnt have the right to vote…
[quote]biltritewave wrote:
felons shouldnt have the right to vote…[/quote]
Just curious, what’s your argument for why those that have committed felonies and fully served their punishment should not have the right to vote? Not saying I disagree, just curious as to why you think so.
Yes, they are if they are over 18 and are a citizen of the USA. But, the question is will they? Probably not.
It seems unfair to the taxpayer that someone who can’t pay their own bills should be allowed to vote for their candidate who would probably allow more benefits for these irresponsible individuals; if you can’t feed them, don’t breed them.
Originally I think the argument for restricting the franchise to property owners was that only those who pay taxes should vote on them. It’s an interesting idea, and all the general populist feelings don’t really refute the fear concerning giving people the power to vote themselves other people’s money.
I tend to agree with lincono here. If there is no “price to pay” for being an unproductive member of society, it encourages people to be unproductive. As support, I will cite last year’s unemployment crisis in Germany. Some 12% of the workforce…uh…wasn’t working (I say last year because that’s when I was researching the German economy – it may or may not still be that way). Why? Virtually never-ending unemployment benefits. Same with welfare. If there’s no reason to produce, people won’t produce. Conversely, if one is in an urgent situation, one tends to get off one’s buttox. Those who have achieved a pattern of dependence on government (read: are taking a free ride on other people’s money), will vote for those who will perpetuate that system which supports them. As that system is supporting them, it is robbing the productive members of society of their time, talent and resources, to which the unproductive class is claiming a right via their votes. Ergo, no vote, no legal right to someone else’s livelihood, and real incentive to get of the ol’ rear end and do something.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if those of us against welfare rights (quite the oxymoron or just plain moronic) were allowed to claim a deduction similar to the child deduction on our taxes? How many socialist Kerry voters do you think would claim this deduction?
TTT
Is this a joke? Disenfranchise the poor? Why not eat the Irish? Jesus would have a field day.
People, by and large, don’t choose to be on welfare, and they only stay on it as long as they need to. It doesn’t represent a moral or personal failure
Wow! While we are at it how about women, the handicapped, and all none white Americans should lose their right to vote. How about we take away their freedom of speech too. I usually don’t get invovled with the political forums, but this is just fucking crazy.
JOe_
Just to defend the conservatives on here, I think he was just asking a question to start a discussion…as you can see from my response I dont think anyone thinks this is a good idea so please dont paint us all with this brush…
Personally, I think only I should be able to vote because anyone else might not vote the way I want them to.
Seriously now:
A person’s financial situation should not limit their role in the political process. There does need to be some limitation on welfare that helps get people off the proverbial crutch but losing your voice shouldn’t be it. How about just taking away one limb per year? (so much for serious)
[quote]DrS wrote:
Is this a joke?
NO
People, by and large, don’t choose to be on welfare, and they only stay on it as long as they need to. It doesn’t represent a moral or personal failure[/quote]
Do you really believe that people don’t choose welfare as a lifestyle?
I’m personally tired of standing in a supermarket line while some welfare queen with her future welfare losers is buying supplies I cannot afford.
Sometimes life is about hard choices and by allowing people an incentive to breed we are actually ignoring what the framers of the constitution had in mind.
I am a much stronger person today because I didn’t accept SSI for an industrial injury I suffered in the early 90"s, in spite of the bureaucrats who suggested I get on the dole.
This is what 30 years of liberalism in the education system has done to the mindset of our youth that people are actually entitled to the benefits of someone elses hard work, let alone have a say in how things are done.
[quote]lincono wrote:
I am a much stronger person today because I didn’t accept SSI for an industrial injury I suffered in the early 90"s, in spite of the bureaucrats who suggested I get on the dole.
[/quote]
I took the checks the government offered me in the early nineties, myself, and used them to finance the education that got me the job that gave me the experience to start my own business.
So I guess you could say I’m a much stronger person today because I did take the money. It’s not easy to come back from being homeless. Without that assistance, I would probably still be shuffling around the D.C. area whining about how unfair life is.
In 1991, right after my wife and I had our first child we were faced with some choices.
Do we put our kid in daycare all day so that we can afford to live in a ‘nicer’ place?
or
Do we suck it up and allow my wife to to what God created her for - nurturing and caring for her child?
We chose the latter - I got a second, sometimes a third job - but the kids have never seen the inside of a daycare center.
Back in those days our diet consisted of ground beef, chicken, potatoes, and beans. Nothing fancy. No splurges. We couldn’t even afford to have a freakin dog because it would be too expensive to take care of.
Choice number 2:
None of the jobs I had provided health insurance - do we go on medicaid? Food stamps? We qualified - but I wouldn’t take something I didn’t earn. We turned down all the gov’t handouts.
I said all that to get to this story, which I think sums up the welfare system.
we were grocery shopping (ground beef, potatoes, etc.). We get to the check out lane and the lady in front of us has 2 carts full of meat and frozen dinners and waffles and…well it was loaded with just about everything we couldn’t afford to buy - including dog food.
When the checker was done, the lady whipped out a book of food stamps - and proceeded to pay for the whole thing - except that ‘dog food’ isn’t covered by food stamps. This pissed the lady off, so she refused to pay for the dog food, went back to the meat dept. and got some t-bone steaks. She came back to the cashier and asked her if the t-bones were covered by food-stamps. Then she said, “Well I guess my dogs can just eat steak tonight”
Yeah - welfare works.
[quote]DrS wrote:
Is this a joke? Disenfranchise the poor? Why not eat the Irish? Jesus would have a field day.
People, by and large, don’t choose to be on welfare, and they only stay on it as long as they need to. It doesn’t represent a moral or personal failure[/quote]
that hilarious, im quite sure most of them are milking the system.
I took the checks the government offered me in the early nineties, myself, and used them to finance the education that got me the job that gave me the experience to start my own business.
So I guess you could say I’m a much stronger person today because I did take the money. It’s not easy to come back from being homeless. Without that assistance, I would probably still be shuffling around the D.C. area whining about how unfair life is.[/quote]
My hat is off to you because you used the system for what FDR originally intended; a helping hand not a lifestyle.
People don’t choose to be on welfare? Thats nonsense. Most often they make life choices that lead to welfare or they simply choose it as a lifestyle. I am by no means rich and I come from a family that for a long stretch of our history was dirt poor(I mean barely keeping a roof over their heads…). They never expected a handout and made do the old fashioned way, work more and do with less.
Sorry, you will never convince me that it needs to be any other way.