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ChatteParfaitt -> RE: Paying For Inmates or Helping the Poor. (7/20/2011 3:10:37 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet
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ORIGINAL: ChatteParfaitt
How about all those nasty jobs no one else wants to do: sanitation work, sewage treatment, online
Who says people don't want to do those jobs? At this point I think there are a lot of people who will do just about anything to keep a roof over their heads. Short of going to prison, of course. If I were employed as a sewage treatment worker, I would hate the thought of losing my job to a criminal.
That's been the problem with prison industries, they unfairly compete with private industries. In a situation like fire fighting, which is short term and a case where the more help the better, it works. For anything longer term, like the jobs you mention, it is unfair competition.
As for the care for the elderly thing, what are we talking about here? I certainly don't agree that there should be some sort of additional national pension entitlement, for instance, other than SS. I do think there should be a safety net, of course, as there should be for everyone. So when you talk about caring for the elderly, what does that mean to you?
Oh I don't know. Why don't we toss them onto an ice floe and let them fend for themselves?
What caring for the elderly or any other group means to you or me doesn't make a damn. The problem in the US is not that we don't have the funds for good social care, we do. We (the collective we) choose to spend it on other things (like wars).
There are some very basic things wrong in this country. The main one is that the rights of the individual have been superceded by the rights of the corporation. Which would be why a prison population can't make products for profit without getting some corporation's panties in a twist. The same corporations which outsourced their workers and caused enormous job loss are experiencing record profits.
The disparity between rich and poor has become ludicrous. People have become so very much less important than things, than the acquisition of riches. How many large screen TVs can one individual watch at once?
Many may not like to hear this opinion, but I believe anyone who does not have proper food, shelter, health and dental care is not being adequately taken care of by our society. To say "people should be responsible for caring for themselves" is disingenuous at best, since not everyone (an infant, for instance) can be expected to do so.
Instead of wasting time and money deciding who can and can't look after themselves, we should just solve the problem by offering food, shelter and healthcare to those who want/need it.
Naysayers will say this would cause general upheaval b/c it would be unfair. Too many would be saying "I work for my 3 squares a day, my neighbor does not." But in a society where people are properly socialized, the citizens work together to ensure that everyone has the basics of what they need. (Which is why *most* people pull together in an emergency. There are some who do not, the ones who have not been properly socialized.)
So this issue is not make everything fair, we can't ever do that. What's fair about the rich getting richer and the middle class losing 50-75% of their retirement savings due to corporations who rape investment plans.
This lack of socialization is not a financial or political issue. It is very much a social issue and can not and will not be properly addressed until we as a society see the need for it.
And I am quite sure that will change in the future. Human beings will experience a catastrophe that will disseminate our population and get our priorities back on track.
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