Posted: Jun 10, 2013 5:37 am
FACT-MAN-2 wrote:Loren Michael wrote:FACT-MAN-2 wrote:Loren Michael wrote:
America actually spends a ton on welfare. It mostly is directed at the elderly though. I think there is a lot of room for specific critiques of welfare policies, and I think I'm reading that that's what you're asking about.
Bollocks.
Nearly all Americans who would be considered "elderly" get a benefit from Social Security and much of their medical care is covered by Medicare and those who are veterans get veterans benefits.
Those are all examples of welfare.
Well, no, actually they're not.
Social Security benefits are earned by their recipients; Medicare has premiums that beneficiaries must pay to receive the benefit; veterans benefits are earned by becoming disabled while serving in the armed forces.
Welfare is a benefit that's received soley on the economic standing of the beneficiary; it doesn't have to be earned, it is awarded based on a set of very strict and narrowly defined financial criteria that potential recipients must show to be factual.
1) Where are you getting that narrow definition from? Means-testing or any other conditions (or lack thereof) are twists that a given welfare dispensary may or may not apply.
2) Wrong about Social Security in any case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Act
The Act provided benefits to retirees and the unemployed, and a lump-sum benefit at death. Payments to current retirees are financed by a payroll tax on current workers' wages, half directly as a payroll tax and half paid by the employer. The act also gave money to states to provide assistance to aged individuals (Title I), for unemployment insurance (Title III), Aid to Families with Dependent Children (Title IV), Maternal and Child Welfare (Title V), public health services (Title VI), and the blind (Title X).