SkullandChains Report This Comment Date: March 22, 2010 01:12PM
TO PEE OR NOT TO PEE -- Words of wisdom from an unknown person:
Like most folks in this country, I have a job. I work, they pay me.
I pay my taxes & the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.
In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random urine
test (with which I have no problem).
What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who
don't have to pass a urine test.
So, here is my question: Shouldn't one have to pass a urine test to get a
welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?
Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their
feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on
their BUTT----doing drugs while I work.
Can you imagine how much money each state would save if people had to pass a
urine test to get a public assistance check?
I guess we could call the program "URINE OR YOU'RE OUT"!
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: March 22, 2010 01:34PM
Purely common sense proposals like this never make it onto the books though
this always leaves me scratchin my head askin Why Not? It would likely shave
billions of $$s from the Fed/State entitlement budgets in a matter of only a few
years ... and lead to a cottage industry of "clean urine" distributors
at the same time.
Problem is that likely 40% or better of the entitlement grabbers wouldn't be
able to pass a urinalysis and the entitlement distributors who need their votes
to keep 'em in office know it. This alone makes sure it will never happen.
I disagree with urinalysis OTJ in relation to weed as there's no allowance for
when you smoked, only that it's in your system, which will show up for at least
3 wks afterwards. Regarding entitlements that 3 wk window would be acceptable
as the checks are typically issued monthly
SpazzII Report This Comment Date: March 22, 2010 02:55PM
.....that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer.... blah blah blah.
DarkKlown Report This Comment Date: March 23, 2010 03:48AM
More to the point, why do you allow your personal freedom to be invaded by
taking a drug test? What a person does in their own time is of no concern to a
entity paying them for a few hours of that persons day. I agree, however, that
turning up to work while on wackey pills should get you the big shiny boot. If
on a Friday night after work a person should choose to go make themselves
comfortable in a gutter while staring at the moon, drooling and singing show
tunes for a few hours, that's their choice and it's a private choice. You
accepting that a employer has the right to test you i think is the main problem
in this circumstance.
The question as to why welfare assistance programs exist in the first place is
the same reason as to why this is a silly idea. The whole purpose of welfare is
to enable people to get back into the workforce without them having to resort to
worse means to be able to pull themselves out of poverty. The reason you pay a
small amount of tax is to stop people coming and stealing large amounts from
your land (people will step on you to survive).
That said one could assume that this would stop you from coming home and finding
your house broken into and items stolen. After all your paying protection money
to the government so this doesn't happen right? And if you choose not to pay
this protection money? what happens? thugs come and take your stuff anyway.
Instead of a tax system why don't we get rid of tax and run services like a
capitalist society. If you want to be able to qualify for welfare you get
'welfare insurance'. If you want police to come protect you because you are a
dirty hippy and don't want to own a gun, you pay 'police insurance'. You could
also roll services in so if you wanted to continue with access to all services
you currently have you could get just pay 'community membership' which is just
40-50% of your salary (about what you pay at the moment).
Personally I'd love to have some army stock and be on the stock holders board
where each month we pick a country to invade. We could ransack each country
under the banner of bringing democracy and freedom, if only that was
possible!
Freedom exists only because people took a stand and said 'I wont accept this
anymore'. It's nice to see your laying down and complaining that people are
walking over you.
jgoins Report This Comment Date: March 23, 2010 11:29AM
Well darkclown. you won't have to worry about capitalism much longer, this damn
president and congress are working very hard to turn the US into a socialist
state right now.
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: March 24, 2010 02:34AM
That's an interesting construct DK. The concept is somewhat lacking in
accepting the ideology that even when you pay to support the thieves in lieu of
them rippin off your goodies, it still happens regardless.
Our cops here are really great about it though. When you come home to find all
your shit gone and call 'em up they eventually show up and will listen patiently
and take down a full accounting of what's missing and what you value it at.
Sometimes they'll even mumble some half hearted BS to impart the idea they might
actually give a shit before tellin ya to be sure and let them know if you manage
to somehow find some of your shit so they can cross it off their list. Then they
rush off to make sure they hit the Donut Palace before it shuts down for the
day.
Dunno about how it is in Oz but here we pay pretty dearly for a govt that seems
to do whatever the hell they deem is best for us, never mind what we actually
think. They treat us to long lines at govt. offices where we're eventually
served by brain dead zombies with attitudes who seem best suited to jobs as
mannequins from the molasses like pace they move about with.
Whatever you do it's best to never challenge them by asking a procedural
question or anything more complicated than what time it is as this will lead to
that deer in the headlights look as they search those little mini files they
call a brain and then will have to seek their supervisor for clarification while
you stand there afraid to turn around and face the folks behind you in line
'cause you know you just managed to piss most of them off in this same moment as
was evidenced by the exasperated collective sigh you heard right after posing
your query.
We've steadily moved ever closer to a socialistic society here meaning govt gets
ever larger while intruding further and further into progressively more areas of
our lives, taking an ever larger share of $$ outta our back pockets and all the
while confounding businesses every step of the way by making it continually more
difficult to turn, much less maintain a profit margin .... unless you contract
out to the govt of course
Yeah, you could say I love it here bit that would be stretchin it a bit. I love
the ideology we were founded upon, just not the perversion of it we enjoy today
SkullandChains Report This Comment Date: March 24, 2010 08:57AM
Well, I'm still not convinced the the to pee or not to pee theory would
work. For one, in order to make it work effectively, after the would-be welfare
recipient quits drugs for a month, passes the pee test, then gets accepted,
you'd have to random drug test these people each and every month. Cause you'll
never catch them setting up an appointment to see the doctor. And secondly, how
many billions of dollars would it cost the tax payers for these drug tests?
jgoins Report This Comment Date: March 24, 2010 11:28AM
Maybe we should randomly drug test everyone in the nation. I don't do drugs so
it wouldn't matter to me. Sound familiar? Isn't it the same attitude which
passed all the smoking laws or seat-belt laws or gun laws? When we give up
rights that do not affect us we will eventually give up other rights that do.
DarkKlown Report This Comment Date: March 30, 2010 03:41AM
MrKim: no matter how much you give someone they will ALWAYS want more, not much
you can change about that. And some people are unable to accept what they are
given and of course they will continue to steal rather than work for it
themselves. But i have this faint sliver of a belief that generally people will
be happy as long as they aren't starving and they have clothes on their backs,
enough that they will work for a better life beyond that.
Police are scum. They don't care about crime, they are more interested in fining
people for using mobile phones while stuck in traffic and not moving (*looks at
ticket*) than they are catching people who break into every single house in a 2
block radius one by one over the period of 3 days (*looks at report*). So
personally i would rather own a gun and defend my own self (*scorns at being
unable to own a gun*) than rely on corrupt and lazy government officials.
FYI I've worked for government departments before. On week 2 i was told to slow
down on work as i was making everyone else look bad and it's not how it's done.
jgoins Report This Comment Date: March 30, 2010 12:51PM
Not all cops are bad cops. I blame the legal system which has handcuffed the
police with their own cuffs and won't allow them to do their jobs properly.
Even if they know who is breaking into those homes they are not allowed to make
an arrest until they have all their ducks in a row and have a conviction in hand
before the arrest. Therefore the police have better luck enforcing vehicle laws
rather than doing other police work. Just obey the speed laws and don't talk on
the phone when you are behind the wheel unless you have a hand-free device.
jgoins Report This Comment Date: March 30, 2010 12:56PM
One other thing, if you had owned a gun would your house have been broken into
anyway? Evidentally you were not at home when it happened and most likely when
they did break in they would have stolen your gun as well unless you carried it
with you like I do. If you were at home when they broke in then why didn't you
defend your home with anything at your disposal? when I don't have a gun in my
home I will defend my home with a knife or a bat or anything else I can get my
hands on and the coroner will have to carry someone out after it is over, either
him or me I don't care which.
Mrkim Report This Comment Date: April 01, 2010 02:30AM
DK, you are certainly right that no matter how much you give, there are always
those who will take from others regardless. My point is why should we be
supporting them at all?
I know people get down on their luck sometimes and need help to get through
tough times, been there myself. The problem we have here in the US however is
that there's a whole segment of society who choose to live off of the rest of
society simply because they don't want to work for a livin. They can apply for
welfare $$ they receive monthly, food stamps they get monthly and receive rent
and utility subsidies they receive monthly for YEARS, some even for a LIFETIME.
Now it can be said that the government reinforces this behavior and I agree, as
do many others, but the government itself simply continues to implement more and
more entitlement programs (which all require further expansion of the govt at
the state and federal levels, which also has a huge impact on the overall cost
of the implementation of these additional entitlement programs) regardless of
their costs to our society or that Americans by and large are tired of seeing
their tax $$s used in this way.
This takes away any reasonable incentive for people to provide for themselves
and all in all leads to an overall downgrading of our society as a whole. And
..... it enamors this segment of society to a particular political party as the
democrats are well known as supporters of this type of entitlement BS, which is
actually a clever way of pandering the vote for democratic politicians.
As to the Cops, dude, I'm right there with ya! Cops tend to do what brings in
the Buck$ a lot more than they tend to be proactive about preventing or
apprehending criminals. Not ALL cops are bad, but my thoughts are that even the
ones who choose it as a righteous career path for the right reasons become jaded
and all too often succumb to the power trip it affords them with the eventuality
being that problee 85% or more of 'em are not GOOD cops
I'm glad I'm not forbidden to be an armed citizen .... YET
