Quote:
Originally Posted by Lune
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You're right and that's why I included that part in there. One thing I want to point out though is the extent to which critics of welfare totally fabricate the nature of a 'welfare class'. It just doesn't exist the way fiscal conservatives tend to envision it. The image of a 'welfare queen' totally overpowers the narrative and twists it away from the reality of the situation, which is that life with welfare in the US is a miserable existence that nobody aspires to, not even your biggest, fattest, saddest, most desperate lowlifes, and native citizens don't tend to build their goals and aspirations in life around the availability of welfare bucks.
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They don't aspire to a life of welfare because they don't aspire to anything except becoming a rapper or pro athlete. Every single inmate I've ever encountered has thought he had the talent to make it big as a rap star, and they'd all practice it like they were going to demo for a label executive in a few days. I'm dead serious, every single one. They have no aspiration, no motivation, no drive, no initiative, absolutely no appreciation for education, and in fact a general disdain for anything considered "white" or "the man". If it ain't part of the hood it ain't no good and will ruin your street cred. Their families, if they have any, are on welfare and food stamps, at least half are incarerated, and very few make it through high school.
I've driven through areas where groups of able-bodied adults were literally standing on the curb in their own garbage at 2 PM on a weekday (Paterson NJ fyi). I swear it was almost comical. Don't get me started on the crap I saw and heard in the county jail during my fairly brief career as a C.O. Even if I told you you wouldn't believe me, but trust me when I say there is indeed a "welfare class" and they find it distasteful and sometimes downright offensive to be anything more than that, unless it's a rapper or pro athlete.
It's a cultural problem. A big one. At this point it's an insurmountable problem but who knows what will happen in a few decades.
(I have no first-hand experience with the rural welfare class AKA "white trash" but I know they also exist, just not here where I live.)
Democrats don't have the solution. Republicans don't have the solution. Money isn't the solution. Education isn't the solution. A radical shift in culture is the only solution. They have to
want it and
value it.