As for housing, clothing, food, medical/dental I have no problems with public support for those who do not have a method of providing those for themselves...they are all things that I think of as necessary for general life support and I am not hard-hearted enough to want those who cannot provide those things for themselves to be allowed to die without them...although there are certainly some of the "street people", homeless, whatever you want to call them who choose to live in the woods, alleys, cardboard boxes, behind convenience stores, etc. and that's their choice. The free medical/dental care could be provided by students who are studying medicine or dentistry and who could also benefit from the exposure to the situations/conditions they will need to deal with once they are out in the workforce as professionals. I WOULD like to see some sort of "Workfare" like I recall Clinton requiring...and like Pete mentioned...there are plenty of methods in which those receiving welfare could be put to "work" to help reduce the cost of public services and that should be acceptable to them, IMHO.
As for a "free car" and "free college"...no... but yes to (preferable to me if it would be available) a free municipal bus pass, since there is minimal impact on the cost of running a bus for yet one more passenger (or even more than one, when you take into account the impact PER PASSENGER) and if that would turn a welfare recipient into a working, taxpaying contributing member of our society by making sure they could get to their job I see no reason to oppose that.
I am also a proponent of vocational rehabilitation services if they will result in an injured individual being able to work and contribute to our society again. My experience with that involves a fall from 32' onto hard packed clay, resulting in a broken pelvis and two broken wrists, as well as some nerve damage somewhere along my spine (can't believe I survived it, much less avoided paralysis and have pretty much fully recovered from it). I was referred to Voc Rehab by my doctor who was certain I was not going to be able to work in the construction industry any more. I realized that further education would provide me with a manner in which to avoid that and was immediately accepted into the Speech Pathology program at the local university. The Voc rehab representative was absolutely LIVID because he could not help me...I already had a college degree and he could not pay for a graduate degree. He railed against the system, said he found it totally disgusting that he had to help drug addicts and criminals with benefits for vocational training and yet could not help an accomplished individual like me who might not be able to continue contributing at the level I had been just because I already had a (useless, for the most part) college education. As it turned out, Worker's Comp and S/S total temporary disability got me through the 2 year M.S. degree and I have since contributed at a much higher level than I had been prior to the industrial accident.
There really ARE some long-term benefits to spending some $$ on individuals who have fallen on hard times and I think I'm a splendid example. Without that S/S and W/C I'd have been left unable to support myself and would have needed to continue with whatever governmental supports for which I would have qualified. In the end, my contributions to our friends at the IRS have repaid those government $$ that were spent on me many times over and our society has benefited from that "investment"...perhaps those we have seen on JayWalking could be given some training and become contributing members such as I have instead of a drain on our economy?
I'm just sayin'......... :idea:
Cheers!
Doug
