Reminds me of the very rich investment banker riding in his limo to his estate. He notices some very poor people eating grass on the side of the road. Shocked that this was happening, he tells his driver to pull over, rolls down his window, and tells the poors they can all pile into his limo and he will take them to his estate for a glorious meal. The profoundly thankful poors do pile in, and the driver moves on. The most senior of the poors says to the rich guy, "sir, thank you so much for this, we are starving." The rich man replies, "no problem, I have a LOT of grass ...."
I dont think there's a plan for how to make up the funding gap and Im concerned people dont take care of free things but honestly trying it and seeing what happens is fine in my opinion.
If we can add some citizen oversight to these programs, it might go some way into addressing Liberal concerns about who deserves it and who doesn’t as well as Conservative concerns about organizational corruption.
I know we’re a long way from weaving citizens assemblies into our governance structures, but if we don’t start the conversation now we might never get there.
One additional point to make is that making services universal helps insulate them from cuts or elimination down the road. Take Social Security, for example. Plenty of millionaires will fight tooth and nail to maintain that program so they can get the benefits they were promised. That’s why it’s been so difficult to touch and why I’ll forever fight against the progressives who want to eliminate benefits to high earners. The day we do that is the day we sign its death warrant.
I have had the misfortune of needing to be on unemployment twice, the first time in Kentucky and the second in Indiana. In Kentucky it was annoying and time consuming. In Indiana it was an absolute nightmare. I never even successfully collected a check there. I remember at one point having to video chat with somebody to confirm my IDs or something. When the guy popped up on the screen, I saw a sea of headset-wearing people behind him all doing the same thing. I thought about how much each of them is being paid, how much their bosses and owners are being paid. Why was all that money being wasted on them? Doing something that wasn't even necessary in Kentucky? And at the end of it all, I couldn't get a fucking cent. Why were those parasites getting my money? I am still pissed off several years later lol
I feel like I'm reading one of the only recent think pieces in English that use the word liberal in its economical and not societal sense. Been a while!
Instead of means testing, if one is concerned about fairness, one could instead just raise taxes on the wealthy and use the tax to support the public good in question. Is that what you propose?
Free systems are always abused. In Seattle, the drug dealers quickly figured out that they could just scoot around all day by using the free buses. Every hobo, junkie, and degenerate makes the buses their home. I’ve seen them shooting up and literally shitting on buses.
The fastest, safest bus would be one that you have to pay for.
Rich people don’t even use private buses, let alone public ones.
Reminds me of the very rich investment banker riding in his limo to his estate. He notices some very poor people eating grass on the side of the road. Shocked that this was happening, he tells his driver to pull over, rolls down his window, and tells the poors they can all pile into his limo and he will take them to his estate for a glorious meal. The profoundly thankful poors do pile in, and the driver moves on. The most senior of the poors says to the rich guy, "sir, thank you so much for this, we are starving." The rich man replies, "no problem, I have a LOT of grass ...."
Im rich by a lot of metrics and use the bus every day. The same bus is filled with professionals who would also likely be derided as rich.
Do you think the buses should be free?
I dont think there's a plan for how to make up the funding gap and Im concerned people dont take care of free things but honestly trying it and seeing what happens is fine in my opinion.
That's very fair. As long as you're not completely against even trying it you're alright in my book.
If we can add some citizen oversight to these programs, it might go some way into addressing Liberal concerns about who deserves it and who doesn’t as well as Conservative concerns about organizational corruption.
I know we’re a long way from weaving citizens assemblies into our governance structures, but if we don’t start the conversation now we might never get there.
One additional point to make is that making services universal helps insulate them from cuts or elimination down the road. Take Social Security, for example. Plenty of millionaires will fight tooth and nail to maintain that program so they can get the benefits they were promised. That’s why it’s been so difficult to touch and why I’ll forever fight against the progressives who want to eliminate benefits to high earners. The day we do that is the day we sign its death warrant.
I have had the misfortune of needing to be on unemployment twice, the first time in Kentucky and the second in Indiana. In Kentucky it was annoying and time consuming. In Indiana it was an absolute nightmare. I never even successfully collected a check there. I remember at one point having to video chat with somebody to confirm my IDs or something. When the guy popped up on the screen, I saw a sea of headset-wearing people behind him all doing the same thing. I thought about how much each of them is being paid, how much their bosses and owners are being paid. Why was all that money being wasted on them? Doing something that wasn't even necessary in Kentucky? And at the end of it all, I couldn't get a fucking cent. Why were those parasites getting my money? I am still pissed off several years later lol
I feel like I'm reading one of the only recent think pieces in English that use the word liberal in its economical and not societal sense. Been a while!
Instead of means testing, if one is concerned about fairness, one could instead just raise taxes on the wealthy and use the tax to support the public good in question. Is that what you propose?
For a second I thought that was a picture of Ruben Amorim.
“free” = “worthless”
Free systems are always abused. In Seattle, the drug dealers quickly figured out that they could just scoot around all day by using the free buses. Every hobo, junkie, and degenerate makes the buses their home. I’ve seen them shooting up and literally shitting on buses.
The fastest, safest bus would be one that you have to pay for.