Open Thread

“If it gets really bad financially (and it seems that it already has), why wouldn’t you apply to welfare for a while?”

kens, not answering for BG but some people have pride.

I did a lil’ career switch when I was about 22 and was unemployed for a few weeks. I remember very well going to apply for unemployment and looking at the lines and saying, this isn’t for me. I walked out and got a job driving a cab.

I think for people who have spent most of their lives working asking for welfare or food stamps is incredibly self-demeaning.

Personally I’d rather be a stick-up kid if it came to that.

Sorry, Benson, I didn’t mean personally, I figured your friend was an analogy so you paying for his ticket would also be one.

What I meant was, would you support a govt program that paid to move people from the rust belt to the sun belt? (assuming they could be hired in advance by an employer there)

denton….I’m fully aware that the numbers have become even more skewed since 2002. Yes, blame it one those who have succeeded.

“•In 2002 the latest year of available data, the top 5 percent of taxpayers paid more than one-half”

dibs, pls post statistics on:
-Marginal tax rates in 1945 vs. today.
-Tax on dividends and capital gains ditto
-Percentage of wealth held by top 5% of population ditto.

I paid for a ticket for a guy to get out of Hong Kong because he had a very large gambling debt that he couldn’t repay. He made a nice life for himself in hawaii and never gambled again.