Welfare in your country

[mmmcannibalism]

Anyway, I have never met someone who likes being on benefits. I have only seen these mythical creatures in the media, which only finds the most extreme cases to publicise. Given the leaner welfare that America has, I imagine that the proportion of people who rely on benefits in America is less than in Europe. Beyond this, even if we assume that there is a significant number of people on benefits who do not deserve them - is their deadweight greater than that of the rich people who dodge taxes, use tax havens, and other methods of "abusing the system" to avoid paying their share? "The top 1 percent of households, averaging $800,000 of income, received 15 percent of all pretax money income." Source. Do 1% of households do 15% of the work in the USA?

 

 

 

No, but they pay about 40% of the federal taxes

 

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

 

 

 

Just saying, I hate when one of those numbers is cited without the other(regardless of which is first).

 

 

 

Although, you are entirely right, our system does need some serious fixes. If we close all tax loopholes, reform benefits requirements, and make all necessary reforms to the system; then its safe to say we could probably either lower overal tax rates(due to money saved) or use the extra money to expand federal aide programs.

[Guest User]

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[dusqi]

The majority of the wealthy citizens are wealthy because of hardwork.

 

 

 

The majority of people on benefits are there because of misfortune and because they have to be.

 

 

 

 

 

The rich, and we as Americans (Biased) :thumbsup: , are the most charitable people in the world. Charity I believe will help much more than welfare ever could.

 

 

 

Because that worked so well in the 19th century. Charity just means that specific groups get help, the ones that the rich people like - it gets used to push a social agenda. No money for homosexuals, no money for atheists, no money for democrats, etc. Benefits should go to all who need them.

 

 

 

 

 

And about reformation.. Has anyone seen the tax code? How about we just burn it and start over. Flat tax anyone? How about a fair tax?

 

 

 

The system should be simplified. However not in the way that the "fair tax" website suggests. A flat tax implicitly assumes that it is just as difficult to go from earning $1m to $1,010,000 as to go from earning $10k to $20k.

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, by eliminating all of those frauding the entitlement system, we could more than pay for an universal healthcare or expand coverage that already exists.

 

 

 

How many people do you think are frauding it?? The cost of decent universal healthcare is high. If you have any evidence that fraud of the benefit system is of such a great magnitude that it would pay for universal healthcare coverage then you might convince me and many others.

 

 

 

 

 

No, but they pay about 40% of the federal taxes

 

 

 

The top 1% of homes own around 35% of the wealth - http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesameri ... ealth.html

[mmmcannibalism]

The top 1% of homes own around 35% of the wealth - http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesameri ... ealth.html

 

 

 

Indeed, I merely brought the tax level up because someone talked about wealth distribution without citing tax distribution.

[l0l0lpur34]

In Britain, we have the NHS, but we have far too much unemployment and disability benefit, you can easily live off it and never have to work, even if you could get a job. It's nice that people who are legitimate jobseekers do it get a smooth ride, but there's far too many people who abuse the system.

 

stop reading papers like the sun and the daily mail, UK benefits are low by European standards and although there is a few cases of "scroungers abusing the system" there is lots of people who legitly cannot get a job/cannot work.

 

 

 

There are still too many lazy [bleep] abusing the system.

 

 

 

You don't need to read those papers to know that.

 

People who actually enjoy living on benefits are rare, it's just the media blows up the rare/extreme cases and makes it look like the problem of "scroungers abusing the system" is bigger than it actually is. Most people on benefits would work but can't either due to lack of jobs, physical disability or mental health problems.

[Furah]

In Britain, we have the NHS, but we have far too much unemployment and disability benefit, you can easily live off it and never have to work, even if you could get a job. It's nice that people who are legitimate jobseekers do it get a smooth ride, but there's far too many people who abuse the system.

 

stop reading papers like the sun and the daily mail, UK benefits are low by European standards and although there is a few cases of "scroungers abusing the system" there is lots of people who legitly cannot get a job/cannot work.

 

 

 

There are still too many lazy [bleep] abusing the system.

 

 

 

You don't need to read those papers to know that.

 

People who actually enjoy living on benefits are rare, it's just the media blows up the rare/extreme cases and makes it look like the problem of "scroungers abusing the system" is bigger than it actually is. Most people on benefits would work but can't either due to lack of jobs, physical disability or mental health problems.

 

Or are like my friend and are too lazy to work, infact he is doing a Cert 2 cource so he can keep getting Youth Allowance, he has no intentions to get a job anytime soon....

[l0l0lpur34]

In Britain, we have the NHS, but we have far too much unemployment and disability benefit, you can easily live off it and never have to work, even if you could get a job. It's nice that people who are legitimate jobseekers do it get a smooth ride, but there's far too many people who abuse the system.

 

stop reading papers like the sun and the daily mail, UK benefits are low by European standards and although there is a few cases of "scroungers abusing the system" there is lots of people who legitly cannot get a job/cannot work.

 

 

 

There are still too many lazy [bleep] abusing the system.

 

 

 

You don't need to read those papers to know that.

 

People who actually enjoy living on benefits are rare, it's just the media blows up the rare/extreme cases and makes it look like the problem of "scroungers abusing the system" is bigger than it actually is. Most people on benefits would work but can't either due to lack of jobs, physical disability or mental health problems.

 

Or are like my friend and are too lazy to work, infact he is doing a Cert 2 cource so he can keep getting Youth Allowance, he has no intentions to get a job anytime soon....

 

Yeah he comes under the "rare" - I admit there is quite a few young people who spend their first few years after finishing school being as lazy as possible but they usually realise that it's not very enjoyable to live on basically just enough to get by for their entire life.

[Kiriyama]

In Britain, we have the NHS, but we have far too much unemployment and disability benefit, you can easily live off it and never have to work, even if you could get a job. It's nice that people who are legitimate jobseekers do it get a smooth ride, but there's far too many people who abuse the system.

 

stop reading papers like the sun and the daily mail, UK benefits are low by European standards and although there is a few cases of "scroungers abusing the system" there is lots of people who legitly cannot get a job/cannot work.

 

 

 

There are still too many lazy [bleep] abusing the system.

 

 

 

You don't need to read those papers to know that.

 

People who actually enjoy living on benefits are rare, it's just the media blows up the rare/extreme cases and makes it look like the problem of "scroungers abusing the system" is bigger than it actually is. Most people on benefits would work but can't either due to lack of jobs, physical disability or mental health problems.

 

Or are like my friend and are too lazy to work, infact he is doing a Cert 2 cource so he can keep getting Youth Allowance, he has no intentions to get a job anytime soon....

 

Yeah he comes under the "rare" - I admit there is quite a few young people who spend their first few years after finishing school being as lazy as possible but they usually realise that it's not very enjoyable to live on basically just enough to get by for their entire life.

 

 

 

Huh, doesn't apply here, I think the majority at my school actually planned ahead and crap.

 

 

 

To be honest, I probably wasn't the best. Until about 4 months ago, I never really seriously thought about my future, it was kind of "I'll deal with it when it comes."

 

 

 

But the most here are either going to college/university or at least have a part time job at present, or other plans.

 

 

 

People who are content to live on benefits may be rare, but goddamn it! They shouldn't exsist. Make them do menial labour, okay I understand if you are handicapped, but damn, those who aren't should be out there doing the crap jobs everyone else doesn't want to do.

 

 

 

Whats worse is those who claim to be unable to work. Too bad people rarely report these [bleep]s, and if they are doing work, its for close family and friends who wouldn't report.

 

 

 

I think that regular checkups at a hospital should be required for those who claim to be handicapped. I understand this may inconvenience those who are genuinely handicapped, but who honestly wants to pay for those lazy [wagon] who do nothing, and don't care.

[mmmcannibalism]

I think that regular checkups at a hospital should be required for those who claim to be handicapped. I understand this may inconvenience those who are genuinely handicapped, but who honestly wants to pay for those lazy [wagon] who do nothing, and don't care.

 

 

 

A simple solution would be a tri annual checkup for those who had temporarly disabilities; people with problems like paralysis would of course be exempt.

[Guest User]

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