Olga Bourlin wrote:
Deserving v. the non-deserving - who's to say? $10,000 per year is a =
pittance as it is, but may provide a little more dignity - a feeling =
that someone is worth something (even if they're a bit lazy). And at =
$10,000 a year someone may not become so broken beyond repair and hope, =
which "a guaranteed 1500 kcal of cheapest food/day, about 30sq.ft space =
in a shelter, and other necessities, no cash" will almost guarantee. =
What would be the monetary difference, anyway, between "a guaranteed =
1500 kcal of cheapest food/day, about 30sq.ft space in a shelter, and =
other necessities, no cash" and $10,000? A little less than $10,000? =
Half of $10,000? What about the potential added costs of the =
bureaucracy that may evolve in order to ferret out who's deserving and =
who's not? =20
#### The "a guaranteed 1500 kcal of cheapest food/day, about 30sq.ft space =
in a shelter, and other necessities, no cash" would be also "no questions
asked" - because every innocent person deserves basic life-sustaining
conditions, at least as long as the people who provide them do not have to
(literally) starve themselves. No bureaucracy to decide arbitrarily who gets
what. Everybody gets all they need not to die, plus sometimes training to
help them get out of the program, but not a dime beyond that.
No attempts to a provide a "little more dignity" - this is a very costly
proposition, especially since persons provided with dignity by handouts
(isn't this an oxymoron of sorts?) might feel too dignified to work.
----I'm so sorry they aren't paying MD-PHds more than poor working people's = wages these days. Personally, I don't worry about "the lazy" - there = will always be a smallish contingent of lazy people, and - who knows? = - -life may be more difficult for them. I've not found "the lazy" to be = in any enviable position, in any case, starting with this "lazy" flaw in = their character. However, with some so-called lazy people it's not that = they're so lazy so much as that they're not very bright. =20
#### I won't tell you how much I make - it's embarassingly little for my age.
The not-very-bright people (except true MRs) have many jobs waiting for them - mowing lawns, cleaning, laundering - and all of them quite dignified.
Rafal Smigrodzki MD-PhD Dept Neurology University of Pittsburgh smigrodzkir@msx.upmc.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:57 MDT