View Single Post
Old 08-30-2018, 04:37 PM   #35
Clodfobble
UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,012
There's always going to be some percentage of a population that are just shitty people--poor socialization, a deeply entrenched sense of entitlement, and a fundamental inability to delay gratification for their own benefit, let alone the collective benefit. I know people like this, and the ones I know are not like that because they're poor; quite often they have a decent middle-class life thanks to family handouts in the form of cash, employment in the family business, living with family while they're "getting back on their feet," etc. I have a 46-year-old relative right now who I am working to get into subsidized housing because he's worn through the patience of his last willing relative-roommate. He's on disability because he needs a lung transplant because he loudly and adamantly refuses to quit smoking. He made that decision long before he was poor. He's had jobs, but he always quits because he doesn't like them. He's had apartments, but he gets kicked out because he damages the property through neglect and generally destructive personal habits. He's just a shitty person who has been given a thousand opportunities and squandered every last one.

Here's what happens when shitty people get a baseline of money that enables them to live next door to you: the price of your housing goes up. And you are glad, because it means they can't afford to live next to you anymore.

On the other hand, I am wholeheartedly in favor of raising the minimum wage. Working 40 hours a week should enable you to eat and live in relative security.
Clodfobble is offline   Reply With Quote