01-30-2018, 01:15 PM
(01-29-2018, 06:05 PM)nebraska Wrote: Why not just rid of welfare?
Well, we have, to a great extent. But welfare is not just a handout to individuals, it also protects all of us from social decline into chaos. Hungry people will find a way to eat. Let's make it a positive one.
In the 1970s, there was a small experimental program in a few counties that replaced welfare with basic subsistence in the form of cash. It ran for a few years, but was not renewed or expanded, so it can be viewed as a controlled experiment. The counties that got the program are uniformly better off, as a whole, than similar adjoining counties that didn't. Crime is much lower, educational achievement much higher, and the overall prosperity much higher as well. In other words, it worked as designed, and the small outlay 40 years ago has paid benefits far beyond the cost.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.