dagblog - Comments for "Left-Wing Dreams?"

The problem with your logic

NCD — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:36:35 +0000

The problem with your logic is Republicans now, and always, loathe food stamps ..... They loathe any action by government to serve anyone but their rich donors, and they particularly loathe it when a government program works.

The not always so great or progressive FDR administration was the one that started food stamps, in a nation of starving unemployed, by paying farmers to plow their crops under to raise prices:

The early Great Depression was marked by a “paradox of poverty amidst plenty.” Massive crop surpluses led to low prices for farmers. At first, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration tried paying farmers to plow under surplus crops and kill livestock. In theory, decreasing the supply would raise farm prices incentivizing farmers to get their crops to market. But the plan was met with outrage from hungry citizens who said they could have put the destroyed “surplus” food to good use.

After this failed start, Roosevelt tried another plan. Government purchased excess crops at a set price and distributed them at little or no cost to poor Americans.

As PP notes fraud is always an issue in America.

Oh really!? Then how come the

artappraiser — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:31:27 +0000

In reply to Medicare has no prescription

Oh really!? Then how come the program is labeled "Medicare Part D"?! It's exactly one of those trick things I'm actually talking about in my comment on food stamps above. You fell for it, you don't realize that Medicare really is subsidizing the private companies to provide prescription drugs! As if it's executed by private cos., psychologically you think it doesn't cost taxpayers a cent, so it's okay. Can I sell you a bridge?

It's all strings amd mirrors to fool people into providing common good with their tax dollars. I think we may waste a lot doing it this way, but that's not what I am pointing out at the moment. Rather, it's about not even knowing what policy choice we made.. We are subsidizing those private companies as well as providing the drugs. Do you like the idea of the government providing more jobs at private insurance companies? Because in effect is what Medicare Part D is doing. Instead of using the funds to exclusively pay for the elderly's drugs, we have decided that some of it should go to make more insurance company jobs. That is in effect what we have done.

I am not advocating for one thing or another here. It just drives me nuts that we can't seem to make good policy decisions without fooling people into it. That transparency about what's really going to go on doesn't work!

Not quite fair - people do

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:14:05 +0000

In reply to I just meant giving "food

Not quite fair - people do scam, quite a lot, and if they get a certain amount of food stamps, they're less likely to run out of money before feeding themselves (though that's more complex than 80 years ago before all the fast food and junk food and more urban living, et al.). And running out of rent or medicine sn't necessarily better than running out of food.. And I have noticed where company food vouchers are given out, prices seem to rise to use up any possible extra, just like housing benefits amazingly match the local going rate when the locals know how much you get.

I just meant giving "food

artappraiser — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:00:33 +0000

In reply to Food Stamps (where we also

I just meant giving "food stamps" instead of just giving people the coin of the realm to spend as they see fit is a moralistic type thing that makes it more palatable to folks who loathe the idea of "welfare". It's built on the idea that these folks are unfit to run their own lives and need guidance, that they are incapable of allocating money for food. So now we have built a system where the grocery industry is subsidized by this that would be hard to dismantle without raising everyone's prices, because the profit margin is notoriously slim in the business. And the supermarket cashier jobs all over the country are shrinking daily. Basically just that it's all a shell game, did politicians come out and say at the start: we're going to subsidize the grocery industry and a majority agreed to it logically, no. It's "using psychology" to get people to go along with what Europeans just naturally accept. We've got this Randian thing where we think capitalism win/lose will always work out if everyone "works hard". Delusional, as in not realizing that means there will be some losers and they could be starving on your streets

Medicare has no prescription

Peter — Tue, 08 May 2018 04:29:05 +0000

In reply to Hmmm.. Why don't we have

Medicare has no prescription drug coverage at all but private insurance is offered to fill that need.

Hmmm.. Why don't we have

NCD — Tue, 08 May 2018 03:41:54 +0000

In reply to Left-Wing Dreams?

Hmmm.. Why don't we have Medicare for all...? Anyone?

The difference is this: if

CVille Dem — Tue, 08 May 2018 01:57:08 +0000

In reply to Left-Wing Dreams?

The difference is this: if you believe in the common good you make it work. If you don’t, you make sure it doesn’t work.

I went to a Canada drug supply site to reorder a medication for my husband today. They had a notice that they will close mid-July because of a plea agreement with the US Dept of Justice. So, I called Costco to see what it would cost to switch. Turns out that Canada charges $15.77 for each pill (expensive), but Costco charges more than $50.00 a pill! FOR THE EXACT SAME PILL!

These medications are manufactured by the same companies and are identical. The US says they are concerned about purity, etc ... BS! They are simply doing what the Pharmaceutical lobby requires them to do. Why are they stopping this? Why are they stopping it now? People falling through the “donut hole” have been doing for decades. They depend on this site for Diabetes medications and other chronic medications.

This is outrageous, but just try and solve it.

Food Stamps (where we also

barefooted — Tue, 08 May 2018 01:50:02 +0000

In reply to One thing that comes to my

Food Stamps (where we also end up subsidizing a low profit margin industry that provides jobs that might disappear soon)

Not sure I get this - will you elaborate?

One thing that comes to my

artappraiser — Mon, 07 May 2018 23:30:43 +0000

In reply to Left-Wing Dreams?

One thing that comes to my mind right away reading her argument that because of people like her we had to do stealth things like Earned Income Credit shell game (where people get back part of the Social Security tax their employer withheld) and Food Stamps (where we also end up subsidizing a low profit margin industry that provides jobs that might disappear soon) to fool people like her into subsidizing the low income folks without realizing it. While in Europe they don't have to play those games so much as they just realize that like it or not, they have to do it. It has to do with that damn Protestant worth ethic thingie.