Were they incapable of working (i.e. physical or mental handicaps)? Or do they just choose not to work? Big difference to me. Even if they have no job skills, or perhaps can't even read, there are 10's of thousands of jobs out there that can pay far more than $11k a year (hell that's like 15 freakin hours a week on minimum wage in my state). Just ask millions of illegal emigrants about the job opportunities, they come for that very reason...
I'm sorry, but there are opportunities out there, they just need to go get it. We truly need to help and support handicapped people, but I have ZERO sympathy for lazy asses who don't even try. (Mind you, their kids are a different situation, but we do have safety nets for them).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01c2y2b/Panorama_Poor_America/
That works in the UK, you may need to find a UK proxy to view it in the non-uk land. Not that I promote that sort of things. Ever.
Now, although I can see your point of view, it is in my opinion a very easy and in some cases down right lazy to buy into the press stigmatization of the unemployed numbers. They aren't all lazy, there is a big issue coming here about total benefits being received not topping a certain figure (about £26k per household per year) - the issue being children, and how bigger families will be persecuted by such numbers because housing, council tax then additions
will mean less food all round. (Thats a bit wooly and I apologise, I dont know enough on it yet because it doesn't affect me yet and the way it is being altered every other day and after every vote makes it a tricky bugger to pin down). The point i'm driving at is, for some families it makes better financial sense to claim benefits than it does to find a highly paying job with which to then fork out for masses of childcare. Time spent raising the kids, etc. It is a whirlpool of a problem though as allegedly the 'work ethic' is bred out of some sections of the public, whilst others abuse the system and siphon off the extra that their kids should be getting for themselves. That isn't an all sweeping fact though. I don't know where population is going, and I have no idea about the long term real world ramifications of the pensions abyss that seems to have been torpedoed and/or borrowed against by government and business alike with no accountability for the certain shortfall when it arrives. Again, another issue.
Chicken or egg, do you expect someone to be 100% healthy first and so be able to work and provide for themselves or, should there be means for the sick and infirm to be helped to get as close to 100% healthy as they can get and then evaluate what they can do and the real world time they will be able to punch in before their health suffers and its back to square one.
An Obama policy is going to mean the bare minimum of medic insurance to be mandatory, that sounds great but how many businesses have cut back in preparation for such an extra expense in preparation? If a squirrel has a few acorns to hoard for a winter it knows is coming, can it be blamed for putting them to one side now even if it greatly effects the other squirrels in its neighborhood?
Obscene pay and too little trickle down effect has seen this conundrum block progress, expectation of reward is key, I don't agree with the massive pharmaceutical companies making billions when some of their medicines are being blocked from getting to those in need - and I don't buy their arguement of requiring such mind boggling profits to then fund the next generation of research. I do not believe every glaxo lab assistant is being paid so well as to be able to retire at 40. The shareholders excuse is bogus as well, having a nice portfolio full of medicine stock is a travesty because the expectation that it will land windfall after windfall creates the cut throat environment of only those wealthy enough to own stock in the golden goose gets a batch of the golden eggs.
'Make work pay' was parroted, 'social responsibility' another chorus. I am not sure the politicians bringing these slogans to public even thought them up themselves let alone have any actual faith in the arguements behind them being valid before actually expecting them to pay off when implemented.
