From: Dale Thorn <dthorn@gte.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 19:24:56 -0800 (PST)
To: Dave Kinchlea <security@kinch.ark.com>
Subject: Re: wealth and property rights
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.961127123103.550D-100000@kinch.ark.com>
Message-ID: <329E4B60.5FDD@gte.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Dave Kinchlea wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, Clay Olbon II wrote:
> > The average welfare benefit (including food stamps, medicaid, and all the
> > other myriad programs) is $10/hr.  Compare to a minimum wage of $5/hr.
> > Offer most welfare recipients a minimum wage job and they will laugh in your
> > face.  (In fact, here in Michigan most employers are already paying several
> > $$ above minimum wage, and often these jobs are unfilled).

> I am not in a position to argue with you, I simply don't have the facts.
> My question is, do You? can you cite where this figure came from, it
> sounds like Republican rhetoric to me. Of course, I will point out, that
> minimum wage is simply not enough to feed a family. It is (or at least
> it should be) reserved for single folks just starting out.

[snip]

Sorry for the extra mail, but I couldn't resist.  At age 12, in a family
of 7, my father lost his salaried job at Goodyear corporate HQ, and we
went on welfare for awhile.  I can tell you for a fact that both then and
now, welfare is worth *more* than $10/hour, if you have a family.

We not only got lots of food free from the govt. food warehouse, but they
took care of the other annoyances to some extent.  Some help was county
welfare, some federal.  Then, when my father didn't go back to the gravy
job, my mother got a good job with (you guessed it) the county welfare
dept., got a good supervisor position, and has retired with a nice pension.

Today I'm a well-paid computer programmer, and yet once again I'm on the
receiving end of welfare benefits (you would not believe how many there
are) in a round-about way, which I can't explain for obvious reasons.

Problem is, even though I can see billions going to people who don't need
the money, I can't think of a solution that could be evaluated as *fair*
by the people who pay for the system.  To suggest that we could support
people only when they *really* need the help would be to suggest what,
bread lines, maybe, instead of a check in the mailbox every so often?