How has the welfare state worked out for the UK, the USA, and Europe?
I used to really believe in it, but I realized that a ton of people are scamming the system. How many people on the sick are genuine?
It’s happening in South East Asia too.
I was trying to figure out why the welfare state has not worked.
Granted my writing was rough, but if you think even attempting to attack that question is ‘bollocks’ you may kindly read another thread, and another poster. No one is forcing you to read my posts.
Don’t try to spin this as me attempting to attack your question. Whatever your question was. This is becoming a tiresome aspect of online debate.
I was calling your entire post bollocks. Very rude on my behalf, but I was pointing out that there was no logic, cohesiveness, or cohesion in your post.
You’ve now self admittedly spun this into a ‘don’t read my posts’ thing. I’m not sure how that works long term.
You are correct that the presentation of my pseudo-essay is atrocious. It sounds like the Mad Hatter dictating an article through the Cheshire cat.
I can see how I anger people.
But I am sure there is some salvageable logic there. The core principles, and reasons why the welfare state has failed, are more or less accurate.
The West now has governments which automatically believe any cock n bull sob story, and pay out money… this is being cynically abused by millions of people.
You have 70 kilo factory workers, having their pay checked taxed, to pay for 100 kilo welfare people. Is that really fair?
Can’t a writer stretch out and practice? How dry do you want it here?
But yes, I am more grounded now. Glad you tested my logic, and knocked a little sense into me.
I’ll strip away all my idiotic flourishes, and focus on the core question.
Why has the Western Welfare State Failed?
It’s easier to accept free money than to work, in many countries.
Payments and agreements are made privately, which allows millions to get free money on any flimsy pretext.
People are copying each other’s sad stories. Some people on welfare deserve it. Older workers, genuinely sick people, pensioners, some single mothers, some factory workers and rural families. The issue is, some people saw this was a good deal, and worked out how to misuse human kindness.
They have very little social safety nets in South East Asia, which forces them to farm, build, and save.
So, I’m asking myself… how to set up a genuine social safety net, that doesn’t get collapsed by scammers? What is working in 2024, what isn’t working?
Any social safety net is never going to be perfectly fair, whatever fair means. I stopped paying into my country’s national pension years ago because I’m confident I’ve figured out how to retire off my own bat. I won’t feel resentful about paying out for other people in the future. There will be freeloaders, of course, but that’s par for the course.
Obviously it has to be reasonable. At the moment, in the UK at least, too many elderly people are getting handouts they haven’t earned.
You have to factor in a degree of slippage, inefficiency, and freeloaders into any system you design, for sure. I don’t claim to have all, or even many of the answers.
If freeloaders were 2 to 3%, we could shrug it off as a systemic inefficiency.
I honestly think elderly people should be one of the least scrutinized groups. I mean, they most likely helped build the nation, right?
What about the guy who collects benefit, sells ice in the council estate, and works as a bricklayer on top of his benefits? These people are taking tax money from hard working people in factories and cubicles.
It’s not easy… I think open source software and pragmatism is the way forward.
tl;dr: 5-20% of freeloaders in each nation are screwing it up for everybody else.
Somebody, somewhere, figured out that human beings are quick to help the downtrodden. And now a huge sector of the world have figured out that they can monetize goodwill, by pretending to be broke and starving.
This is taking money from those who really need it… like the elderly, etc.
It is a huge subject, and no one knows a perfect solution.
I preferred the juggling guy, he provided entertainment.
If this guy claimed he’s a complete idiot and this is the only way he can make a living by NOT working maybe he would be ok lol.
Why on earth would someone begging/trying to scam you for money be described as “guilt-tripping” you? Wouldn’t this more accurately be described as “preying on one’s sympathies”?
Google Translate keeps getting better and better, and yet, this passage…
…suggests that we meatsack language converters might not have all that much to fear just yet. Though I think the prospect of people violating the crime of fraud is rather disturbing, and must be borne of a twisted sadism that I’m not altogether sure the crime of fraud deserves to have inflicted upon it.
[!quote] focustaiwan.tw
A man from the United States was traveling from Hong Kong back to the U.S. on Feb. 27, but missed his connecting flight at Taoyuan International Airport because he was late getting in.
He walked from Taoyuan to Taichung for six days without any money before finally asking for assistance from local police, who helped him contact the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).
Lacking money and a mode of transportation, the man decided to walk to Taipei, but lost his way and ended up walking in the opposite direction all the way to Taichung’s Dajia District, police there said
Like he didn’t have a phone with Google Maps? Not even one with a compass that would tell him that he’s walking south instead of north…?
