Actually.. part of what they need to fix. I mean, with SSRI and RSDI.. is the incentive to come off of it. I'm on disability and get $600 a month, $20 from the state for food. My medications are covered by either Medicare or MN's Medical Assistance program. ( If Medicare doesnt cover it, MN MA does )... But here's part of the problem.

If I work.. I lose my insurance. I lose my insurance, I lose my medication. I lose my medication.. ( and then I would end right back on disability )

So.. may be if they added something that forced insurance companies to have to cover people coming off of disability with pre-existing conditions.. it would make it alot easier ( Actually, I think they should od that for everyone, not just for people coming of disability )

It would also be nice if we were able to - if we chose - be able to pay directly back in to the welfare system.. I at least feel like I owe society.. and would have no problem with offering to pay back into the pay. ( I mean, obviously I pay with taxes.. but I would go beyond that if I had extra to spare )

I'm not ready to come off disability yet. I'm starting to test the waters volunteering, etc.. I'm not going to go into the details of the nature of my problem.. But not everyone on welfare are like the example given.

Too many social programs? We dont even have universal health care. For note.. I'm from MN. I think MN has one of the best systems in the country. If there was ever a federal system I think it should be based on something like we have.

As for welfare in general. Look at Hollands system. I just read a book about it and it seems to work wonderfully. I mean you get lazy people on it, but generally it just seemed to be the refugees. But anyway. I've rambled enough.

People like you, sadly, are few and far between. If everyone on the welfare system was as responsible and honorable as you seem to be, trying their best to get back into the game, then I would not begrudge anyone any social welfare program.

As it is, that is by far, just not the case. At least not in my area. A friend of mine is personally going through it right now. She could look for work, get a job, all that fun stuff, or she could just stay on welfare and have a free ride.

She does want to work. She wants to be a good example for her child. Sadly, the temptation seems to be too much for her and she continues to sabotage every attempt she makes to get back on track. She's an otherwise capable, intelligent, and decent person. But she's now, seemingly, hopelessly addicted to the system.

Free money is very hard for some people to let go.

Imagine that.

I live in Tennessee and have a cousin who hasn't worked in years due to her husband having legitimate back issues. They have 3 kids the youngest of which is 13. So, they would fit this low income bracket as described above. They had a 50"or so LCD with surround sound, 4 computers and each had a cell. I have a good paying job (for the area)and two phones but pay all my taxes and stuff and am watching a 14 year old TV with no surround sound and only one PC. I also have five kids and we are single income. I really don't think our "poor" suffer worse than other countries but in fact are on the same level as lower middle class in other countries. Our perception of "suffering" and "poor" in this country is skewed. This article is a company doing it and not a government handout which that's perfectly fine with me. Even if it is because the company wishes to do good for the people, it is still a tax write-off but that is what i would call a good reason to have tax write-offs.
Democrats have done more to devide this country than unite it than any other organization in existence. They say the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. From how I see it, our poor are getting richer also. if the rich get richer because of hard work and legal, ethical work ethics than by all means, let them get richer, that's what helped build our country. They pay a big chuck of taxes. I pay more than I would like, our stupid local government just upped our sales tax which is now at 10%. That doesn't help anyone but if that's all we paid, no FICA, Income, etc. then I'd be all for it.
What democrats don't understand is that the more they tax, the more incentive for companies to move out to some place where labor and taxes are cheaper. You may say they have no loyalty but running a business is a lot of work and with all the legal issues with labor and cost battles to make a profit, I'm surprised we have as many companies still here but keep raising there taxes and overhead then no one will have a job, rich or poor. Then who will pay for all the handouts? Talk about national debt?
I don’t care to be rich, I just want to be able to make a comfortable living and take care of my family. That’s getting harder and harder to do.

+++^THIS^!

*THIS* is what is wrong with America. Too many social programs, rewarding people for not being productive members of society.

Back injuries suck. My wife has 3 disintegrating vertebrae in he lower back. Amazingly enough, she is still able to make a living (not all jobs require constant lifting, squatting, twisting, etc...).

While those truly unable to work due to physical or mental disability should be cared for, it is not our responsibility to make sure they have a better standard of living than those who *are* able to work.

Unfortunately, exactly that is becoming more and more common these days...

Of course such examples rub anyone but are they really representative? Is this how the average 'low income' family lives? I hate my hard earned tax money being wasted on lazy unproductive slobs as much as anyone but I am skeptical about such showcase examples, which generally lead to lots of shoulder patting of equal thinkers but are easily dismantled.

Maybe the social sector should be privatized and measured with clear KPIs rather than giving an incompetent administration a large check book without accountability.

Amen!

But that does provide an exception for me since I am a "victim", doesn't it?

Are you victim of a disability, or just of trolls and entitled youth?

Is this how the average 'low income' family lives?

Paycheck to paycheck, dreading the next car problem.

The 'really low income' families have Hi-Def, cable, cell phones, $400 a month for food, $1300 a month to blow on toys and drugs...(this usually consists of a couple, with one or more kids. One of the "adults" is usually a felon with no job. The kids support, house, etc. all fall on the other who gets the enormous support capital from the county/state)

Well, at least that's how Dakota County, Minnesota does it. It varies a little from county to county.

The joys of living (and paying taxes) in a Blue State. :)

quibble quibble quibble...

;-) ;-) ;-)

Yah thats how they do it down here in Orange County, Fl.

EDIT: Oh and thier cars are worth more than thier homes.

I think it is a wonderful idea to award cell phones to the poor of this country for emergency purposes... give them cell phones that only make calls to 911. that is the extent of any number one needs to call in case of emergency. Anything else is just a criminal reflection and reward for being lazy. Too many people work hard to get the money to afford luxury calls - the poor don't need luxury, they can be given basic rights, the right to fair treatment under law, the right to emergency assistance when needed, and the right to be booted out of their nice "low income" townhouses if they don't provide proof of active job search attempts (or at least provide proof of income other than the government handouts)

Holy crap!

I actually agree with you on this. Quite the conservative viewpoint you have there. Better be careful. ;)

hey, wait! that wasn't me that posted that, some low income freak musta hacked my account and posted that..

the world is coming to an end, me and tool agree on something ?? o.O *dies*

o.O *dies*

w00t!

(Just kidding, I've just never killed anyone by post before...)

This article neglects to explain the rationale behind the plan. From the SafeLink name and limited number of minutes, it sounds like the intention is to provide a safety cell for people to have on hand in case of an emergency. You have to admit that it is nice to have one around just in case. It's kind of like the cheap phones that we hook our parents/grandparents up with to have just in case.

Will this program be abused though? Hell yeah!

Another noble plan that is begging to be abused.
REMEMBER THE CHEESE.

Why?

Because I have decided to work, keep my job, pay taxes and be a productive citizen why am I penalized by having to pay for a cell phone and service? Lower income, or folks that don't want to work or keep a job, are rewarded and enabled to stay on the course they are on with no incentive to become productive to the community. Nice one!

Why do you hate America so much? Your selfishism is what is truly wrong in America now. Other Western Nations are far more caring towards their citizens and they aren't in nearly as much trouble as America is now.

Uhhh - The US is one the most philanthropic countries in the world. The US consistently comes to the aid of the entire world. Now, what we're you saying about being selfish? I don't quite understand.

Yet it lets its own citizens suffer greatly.

Actually. most of that so-called aid has strings attached to it. With the money aid they are only allowed to buy from American corporations. It is really just a way to launder money to the corporations. Plus, on a per capita basis (The really only fair way to measure this sort of thing.) many other nations give far more.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0930884.html

http://www.nationmaster....ic-aid-donor-per-capita

As much as I would love to go back and forth with you, I have to get to work and demonstrate responsibility - so that the low income folks can have the luxury of a cell phone.
Wouldn't want to be considered selfish or anything.

I agree with you.

The list at the first link disagrees with the other!

I think that the hard working American is sick and tired of entitlement. Just because you can not afford something does not mean that someone should give it to you. Some how people are paying for that free service. Entitlement is what is destroying America.

Yes they will be suffering greatly if that don't get that cell phone! The ones that are suffering are the ones working and then having to give it away to the people that sit on their a** all day asking for handouts.

Entitlement and somehow people seem to think that one of the Bill of Rights is "The right to not be offended."

you go ahead and believe that rhetoric you are spouting.

Denmark gives the most amount of its GDP (1.01%) to developing countries; Norway gives 0.91%; the Netherlands give 0.79% and so on until the end of list, where the USA sits. Yes, America ranks DEAD LAST in foreign aid at a pathetic 0.1% of its GDP, compared to the other 21 nations listed as developed nations.
The idea that the US government is a heroic bunch that runs around the world helping the poor and the disempowered is not backed up by the evidence. We have one of the stingiest governments on earth.

Most Americans believe the US spends 24% of its budget on aid to poor countries; the actual amount is well under a quarter of 1%. Our country also ranks #5 on asylum-seeker acceptance rates (#1 is Denmark and #2 is Canada).

For you self-congratulatory, redneck-inspired conservative ****wads who will start to say, "B-b-b-but you're anti-American! M-m-m-moonbat! G-g-g-god bless the USA!" I answer, "Go **** yourself. We can do better." Stop blindly believing everything your president tells you. Come back to us only when you start realizing that the $400 billion your president has allocated to his Roman Empire-style military overstretch could be better spent on correcting the sociopolitical and economic problems in the arenas that I've listed above.

further, those of you who say the USA is the best place to live, where people have the most rights and freedoms, here are some more facts:

USA Ranking on Adult Literacy Scale: #9
(#1 Sweden and #2 Norway)- OECD

USA Ranking on Healthcare Quality Index: #37
(#1 France and #2 Italy)- World Health Organization 2003

USA Ranking of Student Reading Ability: #12
(#1 Finland and #2 South Korea)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking of Student Problem Solving Ability: #26
(#1 South Korea and #2 Finland)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking on Student Mathematics Ability: # 24
(#1 Hong Kong and #2 Finland)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking of Student Science Ability: #19
(#1 Finland and #2 Japan)- OECD PISA 2003

USA Ranking on Women's Rights Scale: #17
(#1 Sweden and #2 Norway)- World Economic Forum Report

USA Position on Timeline of Gay Rights Progress: # 6 (1997)
(#1 Sweden 1987 and #2 Norway 1993)- Vexen

USA Ranking on Life Expectancy: #29
(#1 Japan and #2 Hong Kong)- UN Human Development Report 2005

USA Ranking on Journalistic Press Freedom Index: #32
(#1 Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands tied)- Reporters Without Borders 2005

USA Ranking on Political Corruption Index: #17
(#1 Iceland and #2 Finland)- Transparency International 2005

USA Ranking on Quality of Life Survey: #13
(#1 Ireland and #2 Switzerland)- The Economist Magazine ...Wikipedia "Celtic Tiger" if you still have your doubts.

USA Ranking on Environmental Sustainability Index: #45
(#1 Finland and #2 Norway)- Yale University ESI 2005

USA Ranking on Overall Currency Strength: #3 (US Dollar)
(#1 UK pound sterling and #2 European Union euro)- FTSE 2006....the dollar is now a liability, so many banks worldwide have planned to switch to euro

USA Ranking on Infant Mortality Rate: #32
(#1 Sweden and #2 Finland)- Save the Children Report 2006

USA Ranking on Human Development Index (GDP, education, etc.): #10
(#1 Norway and #2 Iceland)- UN Human Development Report 2005

Just a few facts to throw atcha. USA isnt all ppl believe it is :) there is LOTS of room for improvement. And before you trolls start off saying "well if you think life is better "over there" then go there... I respond, why? It doesn't fix the problems here and only further demeans the very ideals this country was founded on. I respond - why not instead work on fixing the problems here and elevating this country to where it should be in the world, instead of the hated laughing stock it is now.

lmao...

USA: Anyone can come here, legally or not, speaking the language or not, able to hold a job or not....

Canada: Must either have a job lined up, speak English or French fluently, or have a sponsor to support you in order to move into the country.

Starting to see the problem? You keep people out. The Liberal left won't allow us to, and then they force us to support them.

Don't give me that socialist BS, *that*, above *anything* else, is what is dragging down the US and the economy.

Beautiful.

One (GDP) is given in percentages (looks bad for us because we have the largest GDP in that list, when in actual amounts, we give more, for the same reason.)

The other (your rankings) in total numbers, again looking bad for us because we have a great deal more actual people in our country than in most (excepting China, of course).

It's amazing how many people fall for that little trick.

Bingo.

So on one hand you complain about relative assessment and on the other about absolute. Make your mind up or would you rather have the numbers twisted to match your view?
A relative approach seems to be quite fair in most comparisons.

The education facts are misleading. The countries beating us in education have the luxury of culling out the future WalMart greeters and broom pushers before the tests are given. Thanks to No Public School Left Open / No Teacher Left Employed / No Child Left Untested, we are required to include the tests results of students who have less than 10% cognitive ability. We are required to include the scores of the special ed student who has his eyes rolled permanently back in his head, wears a cervical collar to protect his neck from the chronic muscle spasms, and does not have the motor skills to hold his mother's hand. That's one real kid in my school, and his score counts just as much as the C+ footballer or curve-breaking whizkid.

No wonder we're failing. I say give the kids who will be WalMart greeters and broom-pushers an education that will let them be independent, self-sufficient, and the best greeter or laborer they can possibly be. Save the test game for the college or university bound students. Then, you'll see where we really rank.

If we're going to be serious about standardized testing, have the tests count towards athletic eligibility. Watch what happens to the scores then.

You got it.

*laughs*

Let me explain:

Percentages only work if the numbers are equal.

50% of 100 is 50, while 50% of 2 is 1. Which would you rather? $1 from 20% of 100GDP, or $1 from 50% of 2GDP?

This is one of the oldest tricks in the books people. . .

You got that right PC! Simple math seems to be beyond most proles these days.

They look at numbers that someone else spoon feeds them and never really think - "What do these numbers really mean?"

I thought the guy quoting all of the percentages was actually making my point until I read a little closer to what he was saying.

playing with the numbers does NOT change the fact, that PER CAPITA we arent as great as some others. that is the whole point of the statistics.

I live on the west coast, and one of the big "issues" always in the forefront here is "illegal immigration"

I am all for people coming to this country looking for a better life, but lets not start off by immediately being a felon ok? follow the laws to get here and live within the law

Most of the problems here are from people from mexico sneaking across the border and taking under the table tax free jobs... I wont go into all the legal issues here because i simply don't know them all :) but i will say that this country's immigration law needs to be changed.

AFAIK, we are still using the same basic core laws for immigration that we did 50 to 100 years ago. lets revamp the system... pattern it based off the immigration laws of say ... Canada.. or mexico.. and enforce them. heck, look at all the new jobs that could be made by actually patrolling our borders :)

Your fact conviently exclude private donations. Yes, the socialist countries give more if you are talking about government spending. If you include private donations, the USA moves up to 6th as a percentage of national income(2006). I guess it depends whether you feel that the government should be doing your charity work for you, or whether you as an individual should do it.

"playing with the numbers does NOT change the fact"

Which is exactly what you are doing...

A landline i could understand but cell phones WTF.

The local crack dealer is going to love this you know some of these people are going to give up those phones for a rock and the dealer can talk all they want for free after they collect a few.

Why does the government always have to give hand outs to people? Thats whats wrong with America now. Its going to be chaos. Instead of one phone that people are taking into, its going to be two of them. Yet another way for America to become more in debt.

http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780307406620

Nobody hates America more than Americans.

This sort of thing is not why America is in such huge debt. It is because of too much selfishism and corporate greed. Its so easy for you to blame everything except what is actually at fault. For that you'd need to get a mirror.

You make a valid point. However, government spending has gone completely out of control in the past decade, and government handouts are a factor in that. Now, I don't know if this case is an example of overspending, but it is definitely a factor.

Another idea to consider is debt (which plays into the selfishness you mentioned). People aren't saving their money like they used to. America's debt's getting bigger and bigger, but we just keep spending more than we take in.

If your outgo exceeds your income your upkeep will be your downfall.

In all fairness, this is not coming out of government coffers; the services and distribution is being aided by the government while the bill will go to the companies mentioned in the article.

I still have yet to see any of the papers around here offer a decent reason why this is a good idea. It seems like it's just something to get the people hooked and baited to a paid plan with a more expensive phone.

Much of that government spending over the last decade, under the republicans, has been in Corporate Welfare, not where it should be on the less well off people in America.

These "free" phones aren't the deal many on here think they are. They have restrictions on them and I see that they are primarily for use in case of emergencies. Not for personal use.

Here's a strange fact. After WWII it took around 43 years for the republicans to gain power again in the House and the Senate. Since then America's national debt went up from $1 trillion, which took 80 years beforehand to get up to, a Great Depression, and two world wars. During the past almost 30 years the republicans managed to drive the national debt up to almost $10 trillion.

This is one reason why I laugh at those who whine about Democrats taxing and spending. The republicans dine and dash instead and that has done more to increase the national debt on Americans than anything else.

I think Islamic fundamentalist terrorists might hate America a teeny bit more than (Liberal) Americans hate themselves, don't you? I think you will find that most Americans love their country through thick and thin, that's why half of the world is desperately trying to come and live here.

'edit' Your link is to a dubious book by a well known Liberal, Richard, (his name is d*** but the auto censorship here prevents anyone from seeing it) Meyer who has worked for CBS, and NPR amongst others, both organizations known for their left wing views. These are the kind of people who love to hate America, and despite what you mistakenly believe, they do not represent the majority, ie. the average person.

Heres a strange fact. The US and world economy is not the same as it was before world war 2. To suggest that the US deficit would have remained at the same level pre 1943 if the republicans had not been in power is ridiculous to say the least.

Those terrorists can only kill you once. Believe it or not there are worse things than death. I truly feel sorry for those, like you, who hate their own country so much and have dragged it down so much just for their own personal greed. Too bad you can't be charged with treason.

As for the rest of your rant. Irrelevant. It seems that the left wing is what has tried to help America the most while the right, like you, are cutting it down and selling it out. I bet that you would sell your mother for a buck if you could get away with it.

Republican apologist.

It has gone up the most during the last 30 years which is when the republicans have had the most power since the end of the war.

BTW, I didn't say 1943, I had said 43 years after WWII (1980). Learn to read and some history as well. Is it any wonder I feel sorry for the likes of you and the real harm your hatred is doing to your country now. Man, what a retard you are.

Also, thanks for proving what I had said.

Were in such a huge debt because of the needless war and tax cuts during said war!

A sure sign of losing an argument is name calling. Also, saying black is white does not make it so, it makes you sound immature. Nevertheless, what ever hell hole you live in, please do us all a favor and stay there. Have a nice day.

That's quite amusing, do go on. None of it makes the slightest sense, but it's funny. Worse things than death? I guess being you might fit the bill.

Nobody hates America more than Americans.

I don't know, you seem to be the biggest Anti-American poster here, Mr. Canada.

You might want to rethink that broad generalization of yours.

Oh, wait, all your posts are broad generalizations...

I live in America and would not want to live any place else on earth. I do hate all the free hand outs.

You are funny a man.

The last part is the best what a load of crap.

Um, what?

I live/work in one of the lower income counties in Tennessee. You cannot go anywhere that you are not bumping into a mindless cell zombie that is not paying attention to their surroundings. There was an issue at a local elementary school last year when a kindergartener lost his iPhone. WTF?

Unless this program is going to be rolled out with Memphis and Metro Nashville as its primary target areas, I don't see that much room for this project to go anywhere. We survived and thrived for centuries without cell phones, do we need to put one in the hands of every upright carcass with a pulse?

Can we get some free gas in Florida?

lol I agree with that.
We need some free gas in Florida.