Be sure to check out donoteat01's video(s) on Public Housing - th-cam.com/video/xqJbE1bvdgo/w-d-xo.html Slight correction: The $591B Medicare cost is what taxpayers pay, not what those on Medicare paying premiums pay.
Thank you for this video. People have so many misconceptions about welfare. I grew up on welfare because my mom had a lot of health issues. We were not balling out or rolling in dough. In fact, we had to borrow from friends to make rent and also afford items that were not covered with food stamps. We had to constantly be re-evaluated to ensure that we deserved the benefits and when my addict father came home from prison, they tried to put us off the program. Not because he had a job or actually did anything to help us, just because he had no where else to go. During a few years when her health was better, the government program helped her get a job assisting the elderly, and we were worse off. We really went through harder times than usual. It was a mess. This was during the Clinton back-to-work era. If you’ve never been at that level of poverty, you will never understand.
@@suzbone sadly thousands if not millions of children are living as rough as this I've personally fell in and out of poverty quite a few times very easy to too get into but it's almost hell trying to claw your way out with no assistance
It's really important to remember that the subsidized phone is also a flip phone that's often got very limited talk and text. It's a utility; a digital mailbox.
To be fair with the mixed income housing thing. The idea isn't really that poor people will become less poor by being around richer people. The idea is that poverty density generally contributes to unhealthy environments for the residents both physically and mentally. Psychology often doesn't really make logical sense, it just happens to be true.
Lack of logical sense is lack of information, and when it comes to psychology we have practically no information on the subject, what information we have is can be summarized as we know certin things happen sometimes
Grouping the “have nots” with the “haves” only results in increased violence. That is not a moral judgment on either party, just how we creatures behave.
Mixing income allows for a much higher level of services in the area, in shops, restaurants, transportation and such. This gives the poor people more options both in jobs, travel and healthy living choices.
RogerWilco I disagree, we have seen time and time again that gentrification in California drives prices so high to accommodate that urban west coast life style that it drives out the poors from the gentrified neighborhood they grew up in
I applied for Medicare in Texas when I was going to school full time, living alone, working 3 part time jobs, and made $14,000 for the year. I have type 1 Diabetes, if I don't take my insulin I die. They said I make too much money for Medicare, but I didn't make enough money for Insurance help through Obamacare. Did I put gas in my vehicle to get to school and work, or did I buy food? Did I buy my school books, or another months worth of medicine?
I feel for you. Random donations is not going to help working Americans, its biasing the government against the rich who just passed a tax bill that raises taxes on people making $75k or less
Totally worth the extra time to put this video together. I grew up in a poverty culture where we were shamed for taking advantage of these programs meant to help us get out of pit we were in. As a result, there was very little welfare education. I was lucky enough to eventually get out of that pit, but it probably took 10 years longer than necessary. Also, the wrassling ferrets at the end are so dang cute!
I know a mom (she's technically still married but he's a drug addict and is jobless) who prefers to be a prostitute to avoid having to get welfare. Her daughter has suffered because of it, but people have shamed her so much that she refuses to be on welfare. (Personally I think that when you have a kid, you need to set your pride aside, but I'm just trying to say that I agree with you and have seen people not use welfare purely because they've been shamed.) I know somebody who is completely blind who is the same way with refusing welfare. I'm all for working hard, but I think that in some cases it's perfectly acceptable to use welfare to get by!
Klaa2-- They may have given up after being denied Social Security. SS ALWAYS denies the first claim-- even when the claimant is blind, handicapped or even bed-ridden. Some people apply over and over again, some for more than a decade! They used to have to pay claimants for the years they waited between their first claim and when they finally approved their claim. I know a man that had seriously debilitating epilepsy with grand mal seizures that came every couple of days. He fought the SSA for over a decade and eventually got a settlement well in excess of $100,000. He bought a house with it. Unfortunately, he died less than two years after finally winning his claim. But that is why they have cut back-payments to one year's equivalent income. In some cases it can be a little bit more, but the claimant has to show loan agreements with repayment schedules.
@Klaa2 i agree with you but to be fair it isnt just America (although from what i can gather especially through vids like this), it can be quite bad here in the uk too-ive heard about old people not wanting to claim for various things and i myself had to be persuaded to eventually apply for disability help-i take a lot of seizures and because that's not obvious like a missing leg would be i was adament i wouldn't claim because i was convinced the benefits wasnt for me, it wasnt until id spent a lot of hard days and nights that my epilepsy nurse persuaded me to apply. And thankfully i did has easing the pressure helped reduce my stress which reduced my seizures and helped me slowly back into work. I've no doubt id still be going in and out of thw hospital if i hadnt eventually claimed. So yeah, while America seems to be especially difficult your certainly not alone, which is such a sad affair
I’m actually glad to hear some people hesitate to take money from the state and would rather work harder, Thad better than the people I know of that just abuse the system and my tax dollars, I would love if my tax money went to the wife and child of a deadbeat that won’t provide for his family so she doesn’t prostitute herself, if only everyone that used it actually needed it. It’s supposed to be temporary assistance not a lifelong crutch, unless you’re genuinely disabled.
That's absolutely amazing and your mom is a superhero. It's worth noting, however, that SNAP benefits have been dropping (proportionally) and prices for healthy food (especially fresh produce) have been rising. It gets increasingly challenging to scrape a healthy diet out of SNAP benefits without additional supplemental help, such as from a food pantry. I used to work with food-insecure college students at my university and we spend much of our funding on finding ways to get affordable fruits and veggies.
That's how SNAP works. The amount you receive is based on the number of people eating the food you purchase. So if she was feeding three people she would receive the allotment for three people.
Lived in the States (Ohio) for 8 years. I heard and dealt with more of the welfare programs mentioned in this video than I'd like to admit. I personally experienced a major flaw... the more I made working, the more they cut (my wife's) benefits. At one point, I had to hand over so much of my paycheck to medicare, we would have been better off if I quit my job and got the full benefits back. I would have NEVER been able to get ahead, as my wife's medical bills were VERY high and would never end. Luckily, she cheated on me and I'm back in Europe. Yay.
@@ThatsJustLikeYourOpinionMan Don't get me wrong. I love the US and do miss it. And Europe's got plenty of problems of its own which are getting worse. Medical and housing related. I used to believe governments were there to prevent and solve problems. Y'know... govern! They just seem to be getting more and more incompetent.
@@tomasxfranco (Read this as info, not like I'm arguing with you.) This was 8 years ago and I don't remember exact numbers. I think I made $1200- $1300 a month and payed $400- $450 "spend down" for Medicaid. Then I had to pay rent and electricity at about $450+ and, of course, other bills. My (ex)wife got a food stamp card, but I wasn't eligible as I as foreign (green card) and I don't remember how much was on there. Way not enough to buy food all month. Occasionally, we had to go to the food pantry, where more often than not, the food was spoiled... and I mean MOLD. If I quit my job, there would have been full Medicaid coverage (for her, not me. I had my own health insurance to pay for) with no spend down, she would have gotten her Social Security (disability) Check back (which was also cancelled after I started earning "enough"), food stamps would have gone back up and we would have been better off. Not to mention all the hoops we didn't have to jump through anymore, like going down to Job and Family Services and Social Security office, which are *fucking Hell holes*, pardon my French, where you get nothing but bad news. You know you're gonna walk outta there more depressed then you were going in. I could have sat on my ass playing second hand video games all day, but I did the "right" thing and kept working, paying taxes, getting nothing in return. I actually told my boss I did not want any more raises, because the "cost" of "benefits" went up disproportionately every time.
@Noise Pollution Not sure if sarcasm orrrr.... Either way... this is about all I wanted to share. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I lived it and I wish they would fix it. But again... governments seem too busy smelling their own farts these days.
@@SocialistFinn1 sometimes people are forced to pay mafia there, but not much anymore, mafia boys tend to get imprisoned or shot at quite often. Mafia lost its power to the Camorra (from Naples) and 'Ndrangheta (from Calabria) wich are worse, but criminal organizations as a whole don't get an easy life anymore, they are dying out slowly here. Especially in the north.
Not everyone that works for minimum wage works for a large business or corporation, but it would be nice, if difficult to legislate for one reason (hard to word) or another (corporate lobbying), if businesses that made above a certain income or profit had a raised legal minimum wage for their employees.
@@primarchlion What the hell are you on about? Why are you justifying small buisness existing kn the basis of paying their employees poverty wages? Why 8n the world should their income level determine if their employees need social programs because they refuse to pay a decent wage?
I don't understand the question, or you misunderstand my comment. It would be nice, in my opinion, if businesses with larger profits/income would be forced to pay a higher minimum wage. That's what I said, I'm not willing to call my Congressman over it or do a ton of research to write exactly how it would work, but I think it would be pleasant.
@@blakejohnson3864 If that's the case then I misunderstood the question =P. My initial comment was replying to someone stating that this was corporate welfare, which I felt implied that it was a program to reduce the financial burden on big businesses. I gave my opinion on 1 method that that point in particular might be tackled. Other methods might be UBI or raising the minimum wage.
I live in a nordic welfare society and I often hear complaints about how complex and bureaucratic our system is, but it's nothing compared to the US system. If I was a US citizen in need of welfare, I would probably be in burn-out.
Road Rants And in countries such as Germany, where the public option represents 3/4 of the population, you very much do get economies of scale going on. Diversity of population has sweet fuck all to do with it, and hiding behind it as an excuse is just being intellectually lazy. What, pray tell, does diversity have to do with laying for healthcare? Healthcare doesn’t become magically more expensive just because your population is more ethnically diverse. Germany manages to have universal healthcare with 25% of the population of the US. Japan manages it with roughly 35% the population of the US. There is precisely nothing that would lead one to believe that the US cannot do it, especially when in terms of GDP per capita, the US is comparable to Scandinavian countries and so should easily be able to afford it.
Road Rants Or perhaps put another way. Universal healthcare works in Denmark with its roughly 5 million people. Why the hell wouldn’t it work in Indiana with its 6 million, or Connecticut with its 3 million. Germany and Japan manage it with populations of 83 million and 127 million respectively, and see better results than the US. There is precisely no reason to think it would not scale up to the US.
Road Rants Or, to really blow your mind, the US already has a form of universal healthcare for roughly 60 million people: Medicare. It’s already been demonstrated to work better than for-profit healthcare in the US and to be quite functional and on a scale quite comparable to that of other developed countries, even with the US’s more diverse population. Diversity means sweet fuck all and has nothing to do with the cost of healthcare. It’s a red herring used, alongside allusions to population size that ignore GDP per capita, as an excuse to be lazy.
This is a great video. I grew up in dire need of many of these programs. We lived in section 8 housing, got TANF/Foodstamps/LEAP(which was the low income heating where I lived at the time we could apply for in the winter ONLY). So there were always ins and outs. I remember super cheap government glasses that I had to be careful not to break and my mom scraping by. I got a job as early as I could and now I help homeless youth find how to make these benefits help them get back on their feet.
Iv done a lot of research into aid programs in Canada, what hits me the most is the fact that nearly 50% of each program's budget is spent on the bureaucracy of the program.
It's like that in most nations, not just Canada. That's one of the main flaws of government-heavy democracies/republics. The thinking of those involved is "Things get lost in bureaucracy, why not profit off it?" If you want a good example look at the results of the grain dole in Republican Rome vs. Imperial Rome (Imperial was far more quick and efficient due to lack of bureaucracy.)
That is why I'm a huge fan of welfare... but not STATE welfare. Looking at good private welfare programs (eg, Shriner's hospital for children) the efficiency is much better... but it also requires society at large to be more interested in personally assisting, instead of the government siphoning it out of everyone's pockets.
Having been on or dealt with on the receiving end of many of the welfare systems in America, the financial "cliff" is the killer & what kept me on assistance almost double the time I should've. As soon as you hit like $1500 a month, you lose ALL of your benefits including food & maybe health. Meaning that you lose more in benefits than you gain from working, making it incredibly difficult to make that transition
Good video. I worked for close to 30 years managing various welfare, welfare-to-work, and education programs. It is very complicated. I have seen abuse in the programs, and I've also seen the programs work unbelievably well. Our state had a 5 year limit on cash welfare benefits, however, there were so many ways for the family to get out of this, well, it basically didn't exist. We did see problems where people would go in a store, use their SNAP benefits to buy food and trade it for drugs...yes it does happen. We saw moms who had a string of men, or other people living in their household and using the benefits meant for the children, so the children got shortchanged. I also saw people use the money and opportunity to climb out of poverty with education or job training...
Honestly this is why Healthcare (specifically sexual/reproductive) and Child-abuse/care need more attention. We having politicians forcing people to give birth to children they can't take care while decreasing children's protections from abusers and taking assistance away from families. People should have a choice and then should be held to higher standards as parents while being given the assistance they need to get the best outcome for that choice. That's how we fix this mess.
I seen a gas station with an ad saying SNAP now covers Energy Drinks, felt kinda wrong to me. Not that people on SNAP don't deserve a Rockstar but because those drinks have to be terrible for you.
@@TheOriginalEdFry Energy drinks might be legal to purchase with SNAP depending on the type of label it has. If it has a supplement label then it cannot be purchased with SNAP money. Recently Monster took all reference to being a supplement off its packaging and changed to a nutrition label making it eligible for SNAP money.
@@TheOriginalEdFry You think that's weird? Fountain drinks are purchasable at some gas stations with food stamps. And at food city, you can buy day 1 Maple Bacon Donuts with it too.
I feel I should share this. A few years ago I was working as a teaching assistant in special education full time. Despite that, my income was low enough that my family qualified for Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC. I went back to school and finished my degree at which time I did some math. In order to cover the health insurance and loss of food stamps I needed to basically double my income, which I did. But yeah, there is a definite welfare trap. This is a reason I like the idea of single payer health care and UBI rather than means testing. Means testing often becomes a trap that keeps people from escaping poverty since earning more can leave you with less. Making benefits universal regardless of income solves that problem and makes administration less expensive since you don't need anyone to go over all the redundant paperwork.
I thought it was obvious. "Which states are most likely to vote against their own interests?" Piece of cake... which they're not allowing to eat either.
Not to mention that the two colors are red and green, which would make the map _especially_ hard to digest for people with almost any kind of colorblindness.
James Angstman I thought that at first as well, but he used a green background map earlier, so that's where I took my cue. Nevertheless, I didn't even need to look at the map. Based on what he was saying, I just knew most of the states that would be highlighted were southern states. No offense to them.
Both are horrid frauds.....this is coming from someone who lives on a farm.....I don't personally accept this money, (because I'm not in charge), but it basically puts those who don't accept the money at disadvantage.
"Agricultural welfare" is a very missleading term shrowded in layers of miss information. Basically, it is a way to encourage farmers to purchase crop insurance so in a bad year farmers would be less likely to go under and cause some sort of massive food shortage
Kyle Hankins the books “free lunch” and “perfectly legal” by David Cay Johnston do a great job of explaining what corporate welfare is, it’s well-researched and fascinating reading!
@@ghostdukevladamir5101 Same here. I hate the echo, the lag, and general inferior sound quality of cel phones. They're nice to have if you're not at home and need to call someone, or your car breaks down and you need to call a tow truck, or need to call the police. As far as I'm concerned, land lines are still very useful.
@@agentpearce479 Doesn't require data, credit or WiFi and a monthly contract is cheaper than a cellphone contract. If your home WiFi isn't very strong and you just want to call someone it's pretty convenient
@@agentpearce479 Landline is actually extremely useful when you live in an area that sees frequent power outages, or where cellphone service isn't all that good. In my case, for instance, my neighbourhood has an average of 6-7 power cuts a year, and they can last anywhere from a few hours, to around 3-4 days. Longest I've faced was a week, and it spanned the whole county. Meanwhile, my cellphone's battery lasts, at best, a day or two without much use, assuming I have it at 100% charge when the power goes out. Landline, on the other hand, always works.
You don't necessarily get "$192 a month" from SNAP for being single. I personally get... drumroll please... $15 a month. $15. Which doesn't even pay for a week's groceries. It obviously scales, and not because I make so darn much.
It's hard to be in that grey area of being a "rich" poor man. You make enough to be out of abject poverty but also enough to get no help from anyone. Not from charity or the government.
@@thatcrazykid1393 I've had a home for about 3 months now, but before that I was homeless for years... all while employed. It's so weird that the government saw me as too wealthy to need financial help, but I didn't really have any bills to show them so they must have thought I was pocketing all my income. In reality, though, it's really really expensive to be homeless (especially with food, because you have to eat out when you can't cook anything). I certainly didn't feel like a "rich" poor man, but in the government's eyes I was.
It is a sad thing when you are working poor, as they don't count the time you could have used for yourself to make ends meet, when out of work, i found i really was not "out of work" i just wasn't working at peak level....i still had to compensate.
Supernova please stop getting your food stamps if $180 of taxpayers money is scuffed at by ingrates. Obviously your total income is more than what's deserving of more snap money? Duh.
Welfare programs in Canada and the US were designed for an earlier economic reality, and are totally unequipped to handle the modern reality: the disappearance of work due to outsourcing and technology. Especially technology.
I don't think this video have addressed this issue very well..... on the issue of outsourcing, perhaps that's why some people say Trump's trade war with China is a necessary evil?
@Chadwicked B Indeed, that's why it is a necessary evil instead of a trade policy that we should pursuits. If China Plays balls, start adhering to WTO rule and actually protect IP, yeah, sure, trade should continue. If China continue on its way, an iphone made by Vietnam won't be worse than an iphone made by China.
Lowering inflation by bringing some actual material value back into the monetary system would do more to raise the quality of life across the board than expanding welfare.
I honestly cannot understand how you don't have more people watching your videos. They're well scripted AND well researched. I'm also very grateful for all the sources in the video description for further research or verification. Thank you for all the hard work!
Lots of people in the comments are claiming that they see people using EBT for buying fast food, alcohol, and tobacco. I want to clear that up because I think I know where the confusion lies. To reiterate what was said in the video, EBT is just a method of receiving benefits. SNAP is the program that doesn't allow buying what I mentioned above. While they use the same card, services like SSDI, SSI, etc. can be spent on anything. However, only certain stores can charge to the SNAP (food stamp) portion of the card. Nowhere that sells fast food can charge to the SNAP benefits. Period.
I have seen people trading food stamps for things you cannot buy with food stamps. Yes it is illegal. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen. It's easy enough to do. Basically just barter with everyday products that are needed universally. 3 boxes of cereal for one pack of cigarettes. It's sort of silly to quote the law as if that dictates reality.
Actually your wrong, growing up in California(specifically Los Angeles), there are multiple face food restaurants that accept ebt. It depends on if you registered as homeless at the welfare office. They allow people classified as “homeless”, to purchase hot foods.
When i was struggeling cleaning carpets for a living trying to support a family of 5 and the only one woking i was on food stamps the gas station down the road took food stamps and would let you buy tobacco using food stamps they had a sheet showing the after tax price of all tobacco they sold and would ring it up as food. So it does happen (not legally though) (no longer need it as i have gained a skill and now have a good job)
And I know some ppl use it like a debit card. They have cash set in for hot food. Also, some stores does work around it, bc some ppl are so poor that they don't own a stove or anything to cook the food with.
@@zloungeact subway is considered deli food if you don't toast the sandwich and thus they don't collect sales tax like other hot food and is technically SNAP eligible.
I've watched a ton of videos from this channel, and this is the first time I didn't learn anything new. I guess there's a good reason for that. I've met a ton of houseless/ex-houseless people who know so much about the inner workings of the court and welfare systems, they could've been hugely successful lawyers in another life. Yes, even that guy mumbling and pacing back and forth in front of the gas station. Poor people are more savvy than you think, especially when it comes to survival. In contrast, I know a lot of middle-class people who... I don't even know how they manage to take care of themselves every day. Can't judge a book by its cover, or class. Anyway, sorry about the rant, just had to point that out.
If people knew how much work it is being poor, how much shifting/accommodating and plain juggling it takes, they'd think better of the poor. Just the acquiring of food can be a real chore.
@@alexandrine1558 Yes, we are a nation of Highlanders. There can only be one...nation...under god...with liberty and justice for all (except if you're black or poor or gay...)
Not to defend Alabama's low unemployment insurance payments, but we do have to remember that cost of living varies from state to state, Obviously California, that has a high cost of living, is going to pay more than Alabama that has a high cost of living.
Just because the average cost of living in California may be higher, doesn’t mean everyone in California is living in a place that’s expensive to live in. The people on these programs are not living in the rich parts of San Francisco or working in Silicon Valley, they’re living in low rent places where they’re just as poor as Alabama poor. High costs of living come from housing, clothes, and food. Expensive neighborhoods harbor expensive restaurants and grocers (ie. Whole Foods vs Walmart). California has San Francisco and parts of LA and other big cities that have expensive neighborhoods, whereas Alabama has...Huntsville? I guess? Obviously there’s rich areas in Alabama, but not nearly as many as California. That’s why the cost of living difference exists, and that’s why Alabama, and in general any other state that holds back on their welfare funding, really doesn’t have a defense. They’re just dicks
@@edwardcardona717 That is not solely why the cost of living difference exists. Go to Oklahoma or rural Texas, the gasoline will assuredly be lower than anywhere across California. Why? Shipping costs, as well as state and local taxes. California has more of that than Alabama, hence the same products (milk, soda, shoes) can be sold for cheaper.
Just heard an interview with Andrew Yang, running for prez 2020. UBI is on his agenda, but he's calling it a "freedom dividend." He has some interesting ideas on how to pay for it. It's on the freakonomics podcast.
Uhhh.... you can definitely use EBT on candy and sugar. So long as there’s a nutrition label you can get it with EBT. Reference: know from a job I worked that accepted EBT where people regularly purchased chips, candy, soft drinks, energy drinks, and even water. It doesn’t cover stuff that’s made in house though like salads, sandwiches, and the ilk. The only requirement for EBT is that the store carries a certain variety of the base foods. So long as you carry a certain number of vegetable/fruit, grain, meat, and dairy products your store qualifies for EBT.
Yeah I thought that was weird that he claimed that. I'm curious where he got that idea. Also, I think the requirement has been simplified to include any business that sells food. I know basically every gas station in my town accepts EBT, except for the 2 we have that don't sell snacks.
Perhaps the rules for what you can buy with SNAP vary in each state, but so long as it isn't hot, you can buy pre-cooked foods (such as rotisserie chicken and sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, etc.) here in MS with it.
G.R. Street: I think it’s the same in my state but we also can’t sell anything made-in-house. What I suspect is there are ways to dodge the laws in this case. At the store I was at there was a separate POS for EBT and you just put an amount in and ran the card and then rang out the sale on the main register, meaning if the company wasn’t honest they could sell anything they wanted on EBT because it’s not like the separate POS knew what was being sold, only the register knew. Obviously it’d be an auditing problem if the IRS or any other government body showed up but it’d be pretty easy to cook-the-books so that it looked like you were selling EBT-approved items.
in Jersey you can't buy anything hot. everything else goes I'm pretty sure. And then there's the program where you can only get certain predetermined things (snap maybe? - haven't finished the vid lol)
Zootycoonman223 in LA and PS I’ve seen people buy those precooked 7-11 pizzas and McDonald’s using EBT cards. He is right about the booze though. But on the flip side I’ve seen drug dealers take EBT cards as payment for drugs. It’s rare, seeing as how most would rather have cash in hand, but those selling meth and heroin are always in a rush to move their product and most of their customers are low income, so they take what they can get.
Actually, in some places you can use food stamps for prepared food, like for cold subs at Publix or Subway. I don't know if That's nationwide, but it's true in Florida. They have signs at the deli advertising "ebt approved". They just can't heat it up.
Fountain drinks can be purchased if you don't put the straw in it. There was a woman in line very upset because she forgot and put the straw in and had to pay cash.
@@tcornettomaha You can definitely use EBT to buy cigarettes and alcohol. You just have to find a store that is crooked enough to do it. Usually these will be small "corner store" places and usually run by foriegners (at least in my area.) I know of two of them right now. Used to be three but one got busted for fraud and the owner got deported.
This video is a great example of why we don't have Moderates anymore. Reason and thoughtfulness? What are you, some sort of socialist? I was a 99er... I did not know there was a name for it... and I support all of these programs and more. Grew up part of this program, part of that one...So many acronyms, too many TBH. These days, I don't qualify for any of them... though just barely? I probably should look into it... but I'm glad to know they're there for those who do need them. Keep on passing the knowledge, maybe it'll even reach ears that need to hear it. Sorry, I'm many things but I'm far too pragmatic to be an optimist.
So you express no obvious limit as to when the government SHOULDN'T provide? More is always better, right? That's why you, and this video, don't qualify as "moderates".
@@suserman7775 I'm not a moderate, I myself am a socialist. My opening comment was a sarcastic take on why the "moderate" economic stance is dead. It's either "Yeah, Government intervention!" or "Government should stay out of where it doesn't belong... provided I get everything that's coming to me as defined by the Government." My own take is that only Government can solve Government sized problems and that certain things should not be run for profit. Example: The point of healthcare should be a healthy populace, not profit. This OBVIOUS stance makes me a socialist.
@@tskmaster3837 You mix intention with results. Capitalism yields higher technology and better results when its intention is PROFIT. Socialism reduces incentive for investment, risk, and work. Its result is equality of poverty.
Late to the party here, but hardcore socialists (not social democrats or something like that) aren't exactly fans of welfare either - they saw it as a stopgap measure but not a solution, and said without other plans, it's not sustainable in the long-term. Instead, they're pushing to remove the reason to be on welfare in the first place by "owning the means of production." Basically all businesses should be run by everyone who work there rather than shareholders - every businesses are worker co-ops (and yes, this kind of business do exists in capitalistic societies, but socialists want to make it as the only type of business).
Hence in monopoly, you get $200 every time you go around the board. Interesting. That $200 has helped me come back after disaster roll of the diceand win the game (monopoly).
Most Veterans are denied as well due to their GI bill and if you used the post 911 I still have to work to keep my family afloat do to not recieving any benifits such as Base housing assistance like I do when im in school. So now im disabled fighting to keep my mill retirement and attempting to better my life while having to take jobs that worsen my injuries from the army this is all to make ends meet and it sucks but I do it because there is a light at the end and I have faith in myslef to move up.
I didn't get any Pell Grant either. You had to be dirt poor to qualify when I applied to college in 1991, and it was only $2000 per semester anyway. I only qualified for subsidized Stafford loans, but only enough to pay for about half of the cost of attending the school I did. It was a private school, but hey, at least it was an Ivy. My parents weren't wealthy at all. They got a windfall inheritance at just the right time that allowed them to send me to college and my brother to a private secondary school.
For the first three years I didn’t get any Pell Grant money, but my last year of college I went to, since my brother also went to college, I received some Pell Grant money, guess the government thought I was considered poor after my brother went to college, and it didn’t really help because the bill was over $30,000 :(
I’m really enjoying this video and the context you provide is really helpful when it comes to correcting any previous incorrect notions I might’ve held. That said, I have been on snap myself, grew up in a quintessentially poor family, leaning towards trailer trash if you know what I mean. I would like to correct one thing, when it comes to the snap benefits, you can buy junk food, it’s not going off of the food pyramid. You can buy sodas, you can buy energy drinks, and in some stores, you can purchase cold Starbucks drinks/food if they have a Starbucks inside of the Safeway or Kroger store . You most definitely cannot purchase cigarettes or alcohol, though it is a fairly common practice amongst the least trustworthy people, to trade food stamp benefits for money. You can get food stamps as soon as you turn 18, just say your couch surfing or your parents kicked you out or what have you and you’ve got them. Say hey, I’ll give you 20 bucks in food stamps if you give me 15 bucks so I can go get some beers or whatever, it’s not uncommon. Is it widespread and rampant and worthy vitriol that it inspires some? No I don’t think so. Maybe I’m nitpicking I just wanted to bring that up because my experiences growing up and having used these services throughout my life, I know that there is some shady stuff going on. (I’m in Oregon btw)
That ad segway at the end, while funny, is ABSOLUTELY one of the best reasons to have UBI, now people could take time from work to skill up and become more advance and valuable members of society.
The concern I've had about Universal Basic Income is a suspicion that prices would simply inflate to make sure you still couldn't be livably housed and fed on it, no matter where we set the dial.
its socialism, just more classy. Young able bodied people do not need that type of help. We need asocial safety net for any citizen, with a time limit.
UBI really seems like the only way to deal with the march of automation, but that being said it'd be a fine way to encourage artisan and artistic endeavors once people don't have to fear for their income and I support both. I feel that a UBI would inspire more creative ventures and risk taking (as in new ideas) that could only benefit us overall and bring us back to parity with other developed nations.
I think the opposite. Watch joe rogan podcast or ben saphiro vs andrew yang. How many unfunny people u know who wants to he a comedian? There are some for me. How many weakass people u know who wants to be athlete? I know some. What people aspire to be arent necessarily what they are meant to be. If that's the case the world will run out of accountant and plumbers coz everyone would just "do whatever they think they're good at instead of what they're actually good at". Anyway geniuses would still generate stuffs regardless wheather there is UBI or not.
@@johndaly2816 The problem isn't about geniuses who altogether account for very little overall, and also still require money to do their thing. Did you think Einstein just did his thing? He worked a deadend office job for years before he was able to publish his theories. Imagine if he had gotten a stipend and could dedicate all his day's energies to working on his theories instead. Moving on, the majority of being good is practice and experience. Something you can get a lot more of if you have more free time and less risk of going broke. And the idea we'd run out of labor is astoundingly misled; if anything the reduction of risk would increase the number of small businesses dramatically. The number one reason that people decide to not pursue opening shop is because they fear losing their income or cannot allocate funds to starting a business. Both can be alleviated via a UBI. Imagine all the painters, carpenters, etc that are stuck doing dumb work just to pay bills instead of dedicating themselves to their craft. And finally, a UBI is not an infinite check to buy everything your heart desires. It's just enough to cover the costs of living and no more. To have a more luxurious life, you will still need to work, and most people will still want to buy cool things and go find a job. Which may be easier to get because a UBI means you can actually reduce or remove the minimum wage since it would be obsolete in the face of a UBI. It's all nuanced and balances out in the end. Ben "if the oceans rise just sell the house" Shapiro is a brainless hack, and last I knew Rogan supported UBI. I need not address either here.
@@nicolaspinto2927 dont get me wrong, im supporter of andrew yang. There are reasons to support UBI but the "so people can follow their dreams" is one of the silliest reasons. Im aspiring bodybuilder and train in the gym a lot. Yet i have my genetic limitation. No matter how much i train i wont even make it to national level, there is limit to each human potential. No u dont simply be a pro just by working hard. You should do what u are really good at with UBI, instead of what you want to be good at.
Where as I think means tested based benefits is a needlessly complicated badly managed system that is rife for kicking people of at a persons whim and having a universal payout for everyone saves beurocratic costs and time
@@gomahklawm4446 yeah, as someone who works in federal crop insurance, you’ve got it backwards. Take away the “subsidies” and prices necessarily increase, as does literally all of the food you purchase. The system keeps the price of agricultural products artificially low so that manufactured food products are also cheap.
I'm a liberal and I support these programs, but I also understand why a lot of people dislike them. I have been working at a job in retail, waiting on people I KNOW are drug addicts who choose to avoid work at all costs (I live in a small town and actually know that's the truth, I'm not just guessing and judging). It's annoying to be slaving for a shitty paycheck and serving someone who seems lazy and ungrateful. What people don't see is the stories like my family. My mom was a single mom and welfare programs helped us survive while my mom went back to school and worked. Eventually we got back into the middle class. The reality is that many decent people fall on hard times. One more thing; I think we need to work on programs that educate and train people more. Throwing money at the problem isn't always the best. A goal of self sufficiency should be strived for, instead of the current welfare trap system we have now.
This is what welfare should be, a method to get people back on their feet. It shouldn't be some redistribution scheme, otherwise you end up hurting very nearly everyone. The rich and middle class have less money, and the poor have money but they have no incentive to work or to work harder, which hurts themselves as well as everyone else.
i dont really understand your point at the end, the majority of these programs are means-tested and a lot of contingent on being employed, in training or actively looking.
@@reactedgnat9344 "The rich and the middle class have less money" Sorry, explain please. I keep trying to picture that as a problem but "the rich get richer" and "the end of the middle class" headlines keep getting in the way. Is there such a thing as "living wage" in your mind or that people can work for hours and hours a week in multiple jobs and still not be paid enough to live? "The poor have no incentive to work" Is that a code for something? Because I feels it has to tie in somewhere with people who live "paycheck from paycheck". It's a carrot and stick method where they dangle a carrot but hit you with the stick... do I have do spell out who "they" are?
@@janramos3050 There's very little Middle Class left or so I've heard; I'd consider them to be the savings class... not people who are giving a huge sum of money and just live off the interest, these aren't those people... and as savings are at an all time low, there's more to the "end of the Middle Class" then just a headline. There's too much concentrated wealth for capitalism to work; What is their incentive to make more money if they already have that much of it? Greed, are we supposed to rely on the Goodwill of Greed? No, ignore the super-rich and ignore super-corporations and focus on the small businessman, there's where the Conservatives love to say where the action is, where the focus is... where the votes are, honestly as corporations can't vote YET. I don't see them as villain or victim, just caught in an unfortunate situation of extremes but they just happen to vote with people who want the same things, just for more nefarious reasons. Wait, aren't they being used as hostages? "Vote for no minimum wage increases and low taxes or the small businessman gets it!" "What about the large corporations who employ far more people?" "Pay them no heed, they're just trying to make a buck, same as everyone else! There just HAPPENS to be more of them." My own thinking is, argue with if you like: Don't rely on Capitalism to make life better, rely on it to make money. Take PART of that money and do something positive with it towards improving society. "That's what charities are for!" No, that's just another form of tax havens, if you want to call it a redistribution of wealth rather than simple taxation, so be it. Just do it. I fully support the idea of a living wage and whatever means exist to bring it about. Take money from places where there are too many zeroes and bring it to places where there are only zeroes. Don't worry, it'll end up back there in no time because that's how money moves. "But they'll just have to do it again, year after year." or "What if it goes to people who'll waste it?" or "What if it goes to people who don't need it?" 1 Yes. 2 There's no such thing as waste spending, only waste saving 3 Then they don't need it but they have it anyway? If it's the right amount all around, it shouldn't matter in any case.
The US has some seriously problems, with understanding what help people in real poverty need. We all do, all over the world, but the US has some seriously deficent ”welfare” programs.
chris532008 that’s factually incorrect. People on welfare aren’t jobless anymore than non-welfare people. Unless you mean “having welfare means more people will be on welfare because they don’t just die off instead”. Which is nazi shit
@@MrFixIt-le7tl that is since Japan has a shitty workplace life and a shitty alcohol addiction problem. Tax alcohol and tobacco, heavily crack down on ijime, force compensated overwork hours, legalize taima, encourage childcare and increased children, give college test assistance to the poor, and create more social opportunities for people that don't have to do with alcohol. Why is this so hard?
Thank you for your service. As in, thanks for your fantastic and educational TH-cam content! Gives me hope that I'm not the only ex military who really ended up with a critical and analytical world view, and learning more than a little towards what people call the left.
SkeledroMan i hate you, I’m at work and I had to suppress laughter with such difficulty when I read this I got a headache, this is too freakin hilarious.
my landline has an "adapter - analog (rotary dial impulses) to digital - that lets me use my 1932 "candlestick" phone and a 80's touch-tone. my neighbours watch stunned and awed when i made a call on it. 😁😁😲😲
The reason your channel DOMINATES my TH-cam viewing, is because you start by DEFINING the subject you are discussing. So many channels involving people just start talking about a subject, these subjects often have vague interpretations for different people, which invariable leads to persons essentially arguing over different parts of the same elephant (I hope you know the parable of the 7 blind indian men and the Elephant) I don't always agree with you, but you are exceptionally rare talent. Thanks for existing. Please don't ever stop Defining exactly what you are talking about.
Tanf = pronounced like tariff but with an n. This is ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO. LOVE your work. Outstanding, thought-provoking, and in places, side-splitting!
LOL Underwater basketweaving is everyone's favorite "worthless" skill people love to pick on. But in reality, it's not only a real, and very difficult skill, it's not at all what most people think it is. It's not scuba diving while weaving a basket. It's a process of weaving done in a tub or body of water. You wet the material so that when it dries, it's extremely tight, watertight, and can keep the contents inside remarkably well. Such baskets are extremely useful, and if you are one of the very very few who still possess this skill, you can charge a lot for those baskets. It's a real way to earn a living, actually. Now, stop using it as a punchline.
As an American its sort've heartbreaking knowing with all the senseless bureaucracy and the general sloth of our politicians, as an 18 year old a Universal Basic Income won't happen in my lifetime.
@@andreiz112dn5 No it's because the establishment swamp prefer the radical left like AOC and swept sensible people with actual solutions like Andrew Yang under the rug. Crazy how conservative media like fox news and daily wire are more welcoming of UBI than the radical left.
@@andreiz112dn5 conservatives aren't evil people, they just accept reality better and work on actual solutions instead of using slogans like "tax the billionaires!!"
Great video. Thanks for making this. Would you consider making a video about a government shutdown? I'm a federal employee and feeling the pain of working and not getting paid right now, but I know there is a lot of confusion about shutdowns and what they mean. Also, how the USG funds things (appropriations). Thanks for the great work!
FYI regarding the basic income project in Canada. It was in the 70s in Dauphine Manitoba i believe and lasted only 3 years. Since then it has seldom been readdressed. For a time a similar project was taking place here in Ontario but was ended prematurely by the incoming Conservative government as a means of cutting costs. Notably the same government covertly gave themselves raises and extra living expenses with the ppl of Ontario only finding out months after....
As someone who receives SNAP, you most certainly CAN buy candy with it. Also, in my shitty state (Oklahoma), EVERYTHING has Sales Tax applied to it, including all food, no exceptions. However, sales tax is removed when you use SNAP.
the fact that Monopoly is famous for its rules being bent all the time shows that people intuitively know that a government is needed for the "free market" to work.
I feel like a good first step is removing the need to be in a single-parent family to be in any of these programs. The best way to get out of poverty is to be in a stable home. The programs should get you out of poverty but it’s up to you to stay out of poverty.
Indeed, when government incentivizes the very thing that almost ensure poverty you aren’t going to get very far, no matter how much money you throw at it. It’s like investing in a high school where half of the students are gang members. Money cannot fix all problems.
I would like to know more about the Universal Basic Income, because that subject still hasn't quite clicked with me. I very much appreciate your mythbusting and providing of sources
Look more into the canada experiment, this bloke failed to tell you about an important fact. The reason why few people stopped working was because they knew the program was only temporary and couldn’t rely on it.
A few things. I was on snap for a few years in Pennsylvania back living w one of my parents. You totally can buy candy with an ebt card, and I don’t think anyone believes you can buy tobacco and alcohol directly with food stamps. What you can do is go to a deli or a corner store and have the owner or someone give u cash for food stamps . It’s sketchy and illegal but a lot of mom and pop shops in poorer areas do it. (Not that I ever did that, I lived in an Irish town. We had bars instead of delis)
* Food Stamps can be used on candy as well as sodas and other "junk foods". Many of those items add sales tax UNLESS you pay with EBT cards (at least in Texas)
The combined income for each person from the welfare programs would likely be more than just the $635, because there would be fewer administrative expenses. One government agency (or at most one per state) would be sending out checks. There would be no time spent investigating how much each person gets.
I surprised myself by falling into Florida's healthcare coverage hole. After working full time and paying taxes for 20 years i had to quit to take care of my disabled mother full time. Turns out i qualify for neither aha or medicaid… ..yay…
The American Public housing system has also been a historical travesty from an architectural and design standpoint, which was something Jane Jacobs fought hard to show. If you haven't read her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities or seen the documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City I would highly recommend them.
I'm for UBI in principal. I see it as a way to invest in future innovation among many other benefits. What I see as the Achilles heel of UBI is market/price fluctuations. I'm writing this comment 3 years after this video was posted and only a year after I came around to the idea. Yet in 2022 we've seen retail and housing companies raising their prices without corresponding market pressures. In my own area rent has jumped 300% in the past 2 years. An apartments that used to cost $500/mo now costs $1200-1800/mo. As one example. I suppose tying UBI to cost of living would help, I fear the lag time between adjustments would be disastrous to families. Yet price controls gets into another dicey area that seems a mine field to me, though I'm not an economist.
i do though not always cheerfully... Someone to talk to/watch vids is Prepper Princess. She is startlingly capable, intelligent, and more than capable of living well below the poverty line without hunger or lack of protection from the elements.
19:17 apologies if you are already aware, but Evicted by Mathew Desmond explores how housing and eviction impacts poverty- in it he explores how Voucher programs were promoted at the expense of public housing (and sponsored by land/home owning groups) and contribute to higher rent prices, further pricing people out of affordable housing and undermining preexisting sense of community in renting areas. Highly recommend.
Be sure to check out donoteat01's video(s) on Public Housing - th-cam.com/video/xqJbE1bvdgo/w-d-xo.html
Slight correction: The $591B Medicare cost is what taxpayers pay, not what those on Medicare paying premiums pay.
Hft
Cores - ga - zaught btw
Love the UHF reference
You forgot to mention “corporate welfare”! 😏
How about a “Moderate’s Guide to Corporate Welfare?”
Tell that jerk to finish his next video we have all been waiting!
Read the title as: The Complete Moderate's Guide to Warfare. Very different video ensued.
Knowing better, there's your next video!
LOL, nice!
Probably means your political ideology is shifted far to one direction.
I found this quite moderate.
Mr. Alias The OP wrote WARfare. Not Welfare.
@@johnkeefer8760 Ah.
Thank you for this video. People have so many misconceptions about welfare. I grew up on welfare because my mom had a lot of health issues. We were not balling out or rolling in dough. In fact, we had to borrow from friends to make rent and also afford items that were not covered with food stamps. We had to constantly be re-evaluated to ensure that we deserved the benefits and when my addict father came home from prison, they tried to put us off the program. Not because he had a job or actually did anything to help us, just because he had no where else to go. During a few years when her health was better, the government program helped her get a job assisting the elderly, and we were worse off. We really went through harder times than usual. It was a mess. This was during the Clinton back-to-work era. If you’ve never been at that level of poverty, you will never understand.
Was she rolling grass?
Paper Mario that's such a deeply stressful environment to grow up in 😞 I hope you're doing great today
@@suzbone sadly thousands if not millions of children are living as rough as this I've personally fell in and out of poverty quite a few times very easy to too get into but it's almost hell trying to claw your way out with no assistance
@@basedchad534 Are you 13?
@@agoo7581 look at his username and pfp used, he's either 13 or a 40 yo living in his mother's basement
It's really important to remember that the subsidized phone is also a flip phone that's often got very limited talk and text. It's a utility; a digital mailbox.
The flip phones can play video, games, and browse internet my son has one.
Not true. It's a smart phone these days with 500mg of high speed data.
@@XenKat 500 mg? that's a high dose
@@princessbloomofdomino950 i got super high on two Obama phones ;)
It depends on which Lifeline-supported service you sign up for. The exact benefits you get vary, too. My program gave me an LG441G (a flip phone).
To be fair with the mixed income housing thing. The idea isn't really that poor people will become less poor by being around richer people. The idea is that poverty density generally contributes to unhealthy environments for the residents both physically and mentally. Psychology often doesn't really make logical sense, it just happens to be true.
Lack of logical sense is lack of information, and when it comes to psychology we have practically no information on the subject, what information we have is can be summarized as we know certin things happen sometimes
Grouping the “have nots” with the “haves” only results in increased violence. That is not a moral judgment on either party, just how we creatures behave.
Mixing income allows for a much higher level of services in the area, in shops, restaurants, transportation and such. This gives the poor people more options both in jobs, travel and healthy living choices.
@@darkside3052 No. It gives everyone more options and thus leads to people having better lives and less violence.
RogerWilco I disagree, we have seen time and time again that gentrification in California drives prices so high to accommodate that urban west coast life style that it drives out the poors from the gentrified neighborhood they grew up in
I applied for Medicare in Texas when I was going to school full time, living alone, working 3 part time jobs, and made $14,000 for the year. I have type 1 Diabetes, if I don't take my insulin I die. They said I make too much money for Medicare, but I didn't make enough money for Insurance help through Obamacare.
Did I put gas in my vehicle to get to school and work, or did I buy food? Did I buy my school books, or another months worth of medicine?
I'm going to assume you mean Medicaid here. Healthcare in the US is an entire video to itself, I might get to it some day.
I feel for you. Random donations is not going to help working Americans, its biasing the government against the rich who just passed a tax bill that raises taxes on people making $75k or less
Knowing Better please focus on the best healthcare systems in the world. Disagreeing with universal healthcare only makes sense in the American bubble
@Klaa2 how?
The more Republican the state, the more screwed you are I'd you run into trouble and need assistance.
The Complete Moderate’s Guide to The Galaxy
"And this is the fabric of the universe. You can't eat it because its everything"
@@aturchomicz821 *DO NOT EAT*
Political unrest? Don’t panic
Grab your towel
@@aturchomicz821 congrats now you have 42 likes
Totally worth the extra time to put this video together. I grew up in a poverty culture where we were shamed for taking advantage of these programs meant to help us get out of pit we were in. As a result, there was very little welfare education. I was lucky enough to eventually get out of that pit, but it probably took 10 years longer than necessary.
Also, the wrassling ferrets at the end are so dang cute!
I know a mom (she's technically still married but he's a drug addict and is jobless) who prefers to be a prostitute to avoid having to get welfare. Her daughter has suffered because of it, but people have shamed her so much that she refuses to be on welfare. (Personally I think that when you have a kid, you need to set your pride aside, but I'm just trying to say that I agree with you and have seen people not use welfare purely because they've been shamed.) I know somebody who is completely blind who is the same way with refusing welfare. I'm all for working hard, but I think that in some cases it's perfectly acceptable to use welfare to get by!
Klaa2-- They may have given up after being denied Social Security. SS ALWAYS denies the first claim-- even when the claimant is blind, handicapped or even bed-ridden. Some people apply over and over again, some for more than a decade! They used to have to pay claimants for the years they waited between their first claim and when they finally approved their claim. I know a man that had seriously debilitating epilepsy with grand mal seizures that came every couple of days. He fought the SSA for over a decade and eventually got a settlement well in excess of $100,000. He bought a house with it. Unfortunately, he died less than two years after finally winning his claim. But that is why they have cut back-payments to one year's equivalent income. In some cases it can be a little bit more, but the claimant has to show loan agreements with repayment schedules.
@Klaa2 i agree with you but to be fair it isnt just America (although from what i can gather especially through vids like this), it can be quite bad here in the uk too-ive heard about old people not wanting to claim for various things and i myself had to be persuaded to eventually apply for disability help-i take a lot of seizures and because that's not obvious like a missing leg would be i was adament i wouldn't claim because i was convinced the benefits wasnt for me, it wasnt until id spent a lot of hard days and nights that my epilepsy nurse persuaded me to apply. And thankfully i did has easing the pressure helped reduce my stress which reduced my seizures and helped me slowly back into work. I've no doubt id still be going in and out of thw hospital if i hadnt eventually claimed.
So yeah, while America seems to be especially difficult your certainly not alone, which is such a sad affair
Renee she did set her pride aside, followed by her dignity... followed by her legs, sorry, had to, that is tragic...
I’m actually glad to hear some people hesitate to take money from the state and would rather work harder, Thad better than the people I know of that just abuse the system and my tax dollars, I would love if my tax money went to the wife and child of a deadbeat that won’t provide for his family so she doesn’t prostitute herself, if only everyone that used it actually needed it. It’s supposed to be temporary assistance not a lifelong crutch, unless you’re genuinely disabled.
My mom fed 3 full grown adults on one S.N.A.P card, for YEARS while my brother and I were in college, She is an amazing woman :D
That's absolutely amazing and your mom is a superhero. It's worth noting, however, that SNAP benefits have been dropping (proportionally) and prices for healthy food (especially fresh produce) have been rising. It gets increasingly challenging to scrape a healthy diet out of SNAP benefits without additional supplemental help, such as from a food pantry. I used to work with food-insecure college students at my university and we spend much of our funding on finding ways to get affordable fruits and veggies.
That's how SNAP works. The amount you receive is based on the number of people eating the food you purchase. So if she was feeding three people she would receive the allotment for three people.
@@shrubsteppers
The thing is we dont appropriate the money properly and often just give them pennies
also known as the top rahmen diet
@@4sername don’t knock it. I lost 30lbs in 2 weeks eating ramen 2 times a day
Lived in the States (Ohio) for 8 years. I heard and dealt with more of the welfare programs mentioned in this video than I'd like to admit. I personally experienced a major flaw... the more I made working, the more they cut (my wife's) benefits. At one point, I had to hand over so much of my paycheck to medicare, we would have been better off if I quit my job and got the full benefits back. I would have NEVER been able to get ahead, as my wife's medical bills were VERY high and would never end.
Luckily, she cheated on me and I'm back in Europe. Yay.
Europe seems like a progressive wonderland compared to the regressive USA
@@ThatsJustLikeYourOpinionMan Don't get me wrong. I love the US and do miss it. And Europe's got plenty of problems of its own which are getting worse. Medical and housing related. I used to believe governments were there to prevent and solve problems. Y'know... govern! They just seem to be getting more and more incompetent.
It makes some sense to pay more when you can afford to pay more, but it was probably implemented horribly like most legislation.
@@tomasxfranco (Read this as info, not like I'm arguing with you.)
This was 8 years ago and I don't remember exact numbers. I think I made $1200- $1300 a month and payed $400- $450 "spend down" for Medicaid. Then I had to pay rent and electricity at about $450+ and, of course, other bills. My (ex)wife got a food stamp card, but I wasn't eligible as I as foreign (green card) and I don't remember how much was on there. Way not enough to buy food all month. Occasionally, we had to go to the food pantry, where more often than not, the food was spoiled... and I mean MOLD.
If I quit my job, there would have been full Medicaid coverage (for her, not me. I had my own health insurance to pay for) with no spend down, she would have gotten her Social Security (disability) Check back (which was also cancelled after I started earning "enough"), food stamps would have gone back up and we would have been better off. Not to mention all the hoops we didn't have to jump through anymore, like going down to Job and Family Services and Social Security office, which are *fucking Hell holes*, pardon my French, where you get nothing but bad news. You know you're gonna walk outta there more depressed then you were going in.
I could have sat on my ass playing second hand video games all day, but I did the "right" thing and kept working, paying taxes, getting nothing in return. I actually told my boss I did not want any more raises, because the "cost" of "benefits" went up disproportionately every time.
@Noise Pollution Not sure if sarcasm orrrr....
Either way... this is about all I wanted to share. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I lived it and I wish they would fix it. But again... governments seem too busy smelling their own farts these days.
-You:"taxes in Us are extremely complex"
-Italy:"hold my beer"
I once heard that only the German tax system is more complicated than the US's.
Maybe it's just in amount of laws and not what those say.
@@pauljackson3491 maybe. Maybe here it's the bureaucracy that goes with taxes.
Well, we got to feed all the tax advisors here in Germany, don't we?
Do they pay taxes to the Mafia in Sicily?
@@SocialistFinn1 sometimes people are forced to pay mafia there, but not much anymore, mafia boys tend to get imprisoned or shot at quite often. Mafia lost its power to the Camorra (from Naples) and 'Ndrangheta (from Calabria) wich are worse, but criminal organizations as a whole don't get an easy life anymore, they are dying out slowly here. Especially in the north.
Never realized that full time at minimum wage qualifies you for SNAP, gotta love that hidden corporate welfare.
Not everyone that works for minimum wage works for a large business or corporation, but it would be nice, if difficult to legislate for one reason (hard to word) or another (corporate lobbying), if businesses that made above a certain income or profit had a raised legal minimum wage for their employees.
The saddest thing about all this is that some people will do everything so defend this idea.
@@primarchlion What the hell are you on about? Why are you justifying small buisness existing kn the basis of paying their employees poverty wages? Why 8n the world should their income level determine if their employees need social programs because they refuse to pay a decent wage?
I don't understand the question, or you misunderstand my comment. It would be nice, in my opinion, if businesses with larger profits/income would be forced to pay a higher minimum wage. That's what I said, I'm not willing to call my Congressman over it or do a ton of research to write exactly how it would work, but I think it would be pleasant.
@@blakejohnson3864 If that's the case then I misunderstood the question =P.
My initial comment was replying to someone stating that this was corporate welfare, which I felt implied that it was a program to reduce the financial burden on big businesses. I gave my opinion on 1 method that that point in particular might be tackled.
Other methods might be UBI or raising the minimum wage.
Damn I had Medicaid my whole life in Missouri he just said I was in super poverty 😂😂
I live in a nordic welfare society and I often hear complaints about how complex and bureaucratic our system is, but it's nothing compared to the US system. If I was a US citizen in need of welfare, I would probably be in burn-out.
@Road Rants All the more reason to keep the system as simple and purposeful as possible.
Road Rants
And? Economies of scale are a thing, with administration and logistics costs not linearly scaling up.
Road Rants
And in countries such as Germany, where the public option represents 3/4 of the population, you very much do get economies of scale going on. Diversity of population has sweet fuck all to do with it, and hiding behind it as an excuse is just being intellectually lazy. What, pray tell, does diversity have to do with laying for healthcare? Healthcare doesn’t become magically more expensive just because your population is more ethnically diverse.
Germany manages to have universal healthcare with 25% of the population of the US. Japan manages it with roughly 35% the population of the US. There is precisely nothing that would lead one to believe that the US cannot do it, especially when in terms of GDP per capita, the US is comparable to Scandinavian countries and so should easily be able to afford it.
Road Rants
Or perhaps put another way.
Universal healthcare works in Denmark with its roughly 5 million people. Why the hell wouldn’t it work in Indiana with its 6 million, or Connecticut with its 3 million.
Germany and Japan manage it with populations of 83 million and 127 million respectively, and see better results than the US. There is precisely no reason to think it would not scale up to the US.
Road Rants
Or, to really blow your mind, the US already has a form of universal healthcare for roughly 60 million people: Medicare. It’s already been demonstrated to work better than for-profit healthcare in the US and to be quite functional and on a scale quite comparable to that of other developed countries, even with the US’s more diverse population.
Diversity means sweet fuck all and has nothing to do with the cost of healthcare. It’s a red herring used, alongside allusions to population size that ignore GDP per capita, as an excuse to be lazy.
This is a great video. I grew up in dire need of many of these programs. We lived in section 8 housing, got TANF/Foodstamps/LEAP(which was the low income heating where I lived at the time we could apply for in the winter ONLY). So there were always ins and outs. I remember super cheap government glasses that I had to be careful not to break and my mom scraping by. I got a job as early as I could and now I help homeless youth find how to make these benefits help them get back on their feet.
A 30 minute video from Knowing Better? Its like Christmas again.
Well it's three kings day here where I live which is like a second Christmas so yes
No it is not! This is way better. :-)
@@Gabriel-cr1qe It's called the Day of the Epiphany.
@@josecarlosmoreno9731 the more you know. I'm just directly translating it cause I don't know how it's called
Would you say it is a.....welfare Christmas?
4:29 : "No one uses a landline any more. Not even your grandma."
Businesses do!
ok boomer
ok boomer
"Cries in German"
Most are running VoIP
yep, still mostly do. And i still do!
Iv done a lot of research into aid programs in Canada, what hits me the most is the fact that nearly 50% of each program's budget is spent on the bureaucracy of the program.
It's like that in most nations, not just Canada. That's one of the main flaws of government-heavy democracies/republics. The thinking of those involved is "Things get lost in bureaucracy, why not profit off it?" If you want a good example look at the results of the grain dole in Republican Rome vs. Imperial Rome (Imperial was far more quick and efficient due to lack of bureaucracy.)
Source?
That is why I'm a huge fan of welfare... but not STATE welfare. Looking at good private welfare programs (eg, Shriner's hospital for children) the efficiency is much better... but it also requires society at large to be more interested in personally assisting, instead of the government siphoning it out of everyone's pockets.
@@briddenattech me too, until I realise I'd rather spend my income on personal luxury instead of donate to private charity. I'm a terrible person. :(
@@briddenattech private charity might be ideal but I don't think it's reliable, since most people don't donate.
I wonder if welfare has anything to do with why Oklahoma has a pan handle?
It could be that Oklahoma had some of the most undesireable land in the U.S.
Oklahoma's population is so unhealthy that over one third is obese (not just overweight). It should be called the love handle state.
Yeah... Why DO Oklahoma have a panhandle?
@@Floedekage The handle was created during the trail of tears. Oklahoma became a state and seized the land surrounding the indians in the handle.
@@Floedekage and now, you know better.
Complete moderates guide to...
Public school reform.
Private Prison industrial complex.
Public School Sex Education.
Planned Parenthood.
I second this motion.
I third this motion
I veto this motion, next on the agenda please.
Connor Barber LOL
You can't veto my motion! I veto your veto!
Having been on or dealt with on the receiving end of many of the welfare systems in America, the financial "cliff" is the killer & what kept me on assistance almost double the time I should've.
As soon as you hit like $1500 a month, you lose ALL of your benefits including food & maybe health. Meaning that you lose more in benefits than you gain from working, making it incredibly difficult to make that transition
Good video. I worked for close to 30 years managing various welfare, welfare-to-work, and education programs. It is very complicated. I have seen abuse in the programs, and I've also seen the programs work unbelievably well. Our state had a 5 year limit on cash welfare benefits, however, there were so many ways for the family to get out of this, well, it basically didn't exist. We did see problems where people would go in a store, use their SNAP benefits to buy food and trade it for drugs...yes it does happen. We saw moms who had a string of men, or other people living in their household and using the benefits meant for the children, so the children got shortchanged. I also saw people use the money and opportunity to climb out of poverty with education or job training...
Honestly this is why Healthcare (specifically sexual/reproductive) and Child-abuse/care need more attention.
We having politicians forcing people to give birth to children they can't take care while decreasing children's protections from abusers and taking assistance away from families.
People should have a choice and then should be held to higher standards as parents while being given the assistance they need to get the best outcome for that choice.
That's how we fix this mess.
"If an item doesn't have sales tax, you can probably by it with snap"
Well, shit I can buy every thing with that here in Oregon. lol
I seen a gas station with an ad saying SNAP now covers Energy Drinks, felt kinda wrong to me. Not that people on SNAP don't deserve a Rockstar but because those drinks have to be terrible for you.
@@TheOriginalEdFry I'm not on snap. My joke was that Oregon doesn't have sales tax.
@@TheOriginalEdFry saw*
@@TheOriginalEdFry Energy drinks might be legal to purchase with SNAP depending on the type of label it has. If it has a supplement label then it cannot be purchased with SNAP money. Recently Monster took all reference to being a supplement off its packaging and changed to a nutrition label making it eligible for SNAP money.
@@TheOriginalEdFry You think that's weird? Fountain drinks are purchasable at some gas stations with food stamps.
And at food city, you can buy day 1 Maple Bacon Donuts with it too.
I feel I should share this. A few years ago I was working as a teaching assistant in special education full time. Despite that, my income was low enough that my family qualified for Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC. I went back to school and finished my degree at which time I did some math. In order to cover the health insurance and loss of food stamps I needed to basically double my income, which I did. But yeah, there is a definite welfare trap.
This is a reason I like the idea of single payer health care and UBI rather than means testing. Means testing often becomes a trap that keeps people from escaping poverty since earning more can leave you with less. Making benefits universal regardless of income solves that problem and makes administration less expensive since you don't need anyone to go over all the redundant paperwork.
Hey man, I use a landline AND I don't have a cellphone! There are dozens of us!
no
"dozens" lol i use a landline too
guys he made a joke
@@makasuevu no, he was 100% non satirical, and totally serious
I believe you. There must be some seversl dozens of you throughout the us
Bruh that map needs a legend. “If you live in any of these states” and a two-color map is super unclear.
I second this
Yeah the only way I sorted it out was because I know what my state does lol
I thought it was obvious. "Which states are most likely to vote against their own interests?"
Piece of cake... which they're not allowing to eat either.
Not to mention that the two colors are red and green, which would make the map _especially_ hard to digest for people with almost any kind of colorblindness.
James Angstman I thought that at first as well, but he used a green background map earlier, so that's where I took my cue. Nevertheless, I didn't even need to look at the map. Based on what he was saying, I just knew most of the states that would be highlighted were southern states. No offense to them.
What about corporate welfare or agricultural welfare?
Mitch Grout exactly
Both are horrid frauds.....this is coming from someone who lives on a farm.....I don't personally accept this money, (because I'm not in charge), but it basically puts those who don't accept the money at disadvantage.
Exactly what corporate welfare are you talking about. All I can think of is TARP (the bailouts) however TARP was a loan
"Agricultural welfare" is a very missleading term shrowded in layers of miss information. Basically, it is a way to encourage farmers to purchase crop insurance so in a bad year farmers would be less likely to go under and cause some sort of massive food shortage
Kyle Hankins the books “free lunch” and “perfectly legal” by David Cay Johnston do a great job of explaining what corporate welfare is, it’s well-researched and fascinating reading!
Not American, also not important but I actually *do* use landline
I still use landline along with a smartphone
Where would such a device be useful?
@@ghostdukevladamir5101 Same here. I hate the echo, the lag, and general inferior sound quality of cel phones. They're nice to have if you're not at home and need to call someone, or your car breaks down and you need to call a tow truck, or need to call the police. As far as I'm concerned, land lines are still very useful.
@@agentpearce479 Doesn't require data, credit or WiFi and a monthly contract is cheaper than a cellphone contract. If your home WiFi isn't very strong and you just want to call someone it's pretty convenient
@@agentpearce479 Landline is actually extremely useful when you live in an area that sees frequent power outages, or where cellphone service isn't all that good. In my case, for instance, my neighbourhood has an average of 6-7 power cuts a year, and they can last anywhere from a few hours, to around 3-4 days. Longest I've faced was a week, and it spanned the whole county. Meanwhile, my cellphone's battery lasts, at best, a day or two without much use, assuming I have it at 100% charge when the power goes out.
Landline, on the other hand, always works.
I remember learning about the rules concerning food stamps when I was a grocery store cashier (1997-1998) while I was in college.
WIC as well.
You don't necessarily get "$192 a month" from SNAP for being single. I personally get... drumroll please... $15 a month. $15. Which doesn't even pay for a week's groceries. It obviously scales, and not because I make so darn much.
It's hard to be in that grey area of being a "rich" poor man. You make enough to be out of abject poverty but also enough to get no help from anyone. Not from charity or the government.
@@thatcrazykid1393 I've had a home for about 3 months now, but before that I was homeless for years... all while employed. It's so weird that the government saw me as too wealthy to need financial help, but I didn't really have any bills to show them so they must have thought I was pocketing all my income. In reality, though, it's really really expensive to be homeless (especially with food, because you have to eat out when you can't cook anything). I certainly didn't feel like a "rich" poor man, but in the government's eyes I was.
It is a sad thing when you are working poor, as they don't count the time you could have used for yourself to make ends meet, when out of work, i found i really was not "out of work" i just wasn't working at peak level....i still had to compensate.
Supernova please stop getting your food stamps if $180 of taxpayers money is scuffed at by ingrates. Obviously your total income is more than what's deserving of more snap money? Duh.
Beans and rice 🍚 only cost $3!
Love the asterisk voice! LOL
That voice kinda reminds me of Joe Pera lmao
Welfare programs in Canada and the US were designed for an earlier economic reality, and are totally unequipped to handle the modern reality: the disappearance of work due to outsourcing and technology. Especially technology.
I don't think this video have addressed this issue very well..... on the issue of outsourcing, perhaps that's why some people say Trump's trade war with China is a necessary evil?
@Chadwicked B Indeed, that's why it is a necessary evil instead of a trade policy that we should pursuits.
If China Plays balls, start adhering to WTO rule and actually protect IP, yeah, sure, trade should continue.
If China continue on its way, an iphone made by Vietnam won't be worse than an iphone made by China.
Lowering inflation by bringing some actual material value back into the monetary system would do more to raise the quality of life across the board than expanding welfare.
@@killergoose7643 And how, pray tell, does one do that in a modern economy where wealth is increasingly based on speculation?
I worked for SSA for 40 years; your explanation was spot on!
I honestly cannot understand how you don't have more people watching your videos. They're well scripted AND well researched. I'm also very grateful for all the sources in the video description for further research or verification. Thank you for all the hard work!
There are some very poorly researched videos so many people are turned off from watching other videos unfortunately. It's why I'm not subbed
He got stuff wrong
Lots of people in the comments are claiming that they see people using EBT for buying fast food, alcohol, and tobacco. I want to clear that up because I think I know where the confusion lies.
To reiterate what was said in the video, EBT is just a method of receiving benefits. SNAP is the program that doesn't allow buying what I mentioned above. While they use the same card, services like SSDI, SSI, etc. can be spent on anything. However, only certain stores can charge to the SNAP (food stamp) portion of the card. Nowhere that sells fast food can charge to the SNAP benefits. Period.
I have seen people trading food stamps for things you cannot buy with food stamps. Yes it is illegal. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
It's easy enough to do. Basically just barter with everyday products that are needed universally. 3 boxes of cereal for one pack of cigarettes. It's sort of silly to quote the law as if that dictates reality.
Actually your wrong, growing up in California(specifically Los Angeles), there are multiple face food restaurants that accept ebt. It depends on if you registered as homeless at the welfare office. They allow people classified as “homeless”, to purchase hot foods.
When i was struggeling cleaning carpets for a living trying to support a family of 5 and the only one woking i was on food stamps the gas station down the road took food stamps and would let you buy tobacco using food stamps they had a sheet showing the after tax price of all tobacco they sold and would ring it up as food. So it does happen (not legally though) (no longer need it as i have gained a skill and now have a good job)
And I know some ppl use it like a debit card. They have cash set in for hot food. Also, some stores does work around it, bc some ppl are so poor that they don't own a stove or anything to cook the food with.
@@zloungeact subway is considered deli food if you don't toast the sandwich and thus they don't collect sales tax like other hot food and is technically SNAP eligible.
I've watched a ton of videos from this channel, and this is the first time I didn't learn anything new. I guess there's a good reason for that.
I've met a ton of houseless/ex-houseless people who know so much about the inner workings of the court and welfare systems, they could've been hugely successful lawyers in another life. Yes, even that guy mumbling and pacing back and forth in front of the gas station. Poor people are more savvy than you think, especially when it comes to survival.
In contrast, I know a lot of middle-class people who... I don't even know how they manage to take care of themselves every day. Can't judge a book by its cover, or class. Anyway, sorry about the rant, just had to point that out.
If people knew how much work it is being poor, how much shifting/accommodating and plain juggling it takes, they'd think better of the poor. Just the acquiring of food can be a real chore.
So TANF is highest in the Live Free or Die state? That is surprising.
Merry New Year, Mr. Beat!!
@@LisaBowers Same to you, Lisa!
@@alexandrine1558 Yes, we are a nation of Highlanders. There can only be one...nation...under god...with liberty and justice for all (except if you're black or poor or gay...)
@@peebay3515 black people are pretty damn successful in their own right, Take Samuel L. Jackson, gay people are successful as well think of Sam Smith
Javier Powell
Naming one black person who is doing well does not equal “black people are doing well”.
Donoteat1!?!? And knowing better?! Yes please
What will be the next crossover with left tube? ContraPoints? PhilosophyTube? I need more!!
@@UberMenschNowFilms contra might be fun.
I've never thought about UBI this way and I really appreciated this new take! Thank you!
Not to defend Alabama's low unemployment insurance payments, but we do have to remember that cost of living varies from state to state, Obviously California, that has a high cost of living, is going to pay more than Alabama that has a high cost of living.
Just because the average cost of living in California may be higher, doesn’t mean everyone in California is living in a place that’s expensive to live in. The people on these programs are not living in the rich parts of San Francisco or working in Silicon Valley, they’re living in low rent places where they’re just as poor as Alabama poor. High costs of living come from housing, clothes, and food. Expensive neighborhoods harbor expensive restaurants and grocers (ie. Whole Foods vs Walmart). California has San Francisco and parts of LA and other big cities that have expensive neighborhoods, whereas Alabama has...Huntsville? I guess? Obviously there’s rich areas in Alabama, but not nearly as many as California. That’s why the cost of living difference exists, and that’s why Alabama, and in general any other state that holds back on their welfare funding, really doesn’t have a defense. They’re just dicks
i thought that was common sense and everyone accounted for that🤷🏽♂️😂
@@edwardcardona717 That is not solely why the cost of living difference exists. Go to Oklahoma or rural Texas, the gasoline will assuredly be lower than anywhere across California. Why?
Shipping costs, as well as state and local taxes. California has more of that than Alabama, hence the same products (milk, soda, shoes) can be sold for cheaper.
Just heard an interview with Andrew Yang, running for prez 2020. UBI is on his agenda, but he's calling it a "freedom dividend." He has some interesting ideas on how to pay for it. It's on the freakonomics podcast.
Freedom dividend is an ingenious way to packaging UBI in right wing jargon lol
Should be called the Extortion Dividend
Uhhh.... you can definitely use EBT on candy and sugar. So long as there’s a nutrition label you can get it with EBT. Reference: know from a job I worked that accepted EBT where people regularly purchased chips, candy, soft drinks, energy drinks, and even water. It doesn’t cover stuff that’s made in house though like salads, sandwiches, and the ilk. The only requirement for EBT is that the store carries a certain variety of the base foods. So long as you carry a certain number of vegetable/fruit, grain, meat, and dairy products your store qualifies for EBT.
Yeah I thought that was weird that he claimed that. I'm curious where he got that idea. Also, I think the requirement has been simplified to include any business that sells food. I know basically every gas station in my town accepts EBT, except for the 2 we have that don't sell snacks.
Perhaps the rules for what you can buy with SNAP vary in each state, but so long as it isn't hot, you can buy pre-cooked foods (such as rotisserie chicken and sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit, etc.) here in MS with it.
G.R. Street: I think it’s the same in my state but we also can’t sell anything made-in-house. What I suspect is there are ways to dodge the laws in this case. At the store I was at there was a separate POS for EBT and you just put an amount in and ran the card and then rang out the sale on the main register, meaning if the company wasn’t honest they could sell anything they wanted on EBT because it’s not like the separate POS knew what was being sold, only the register knew. Obviously it’d be an auditing problem if the IRS or any other government body showed up but it’d be pretty easy to cook-the-books so that it looked like you were selling EBT-approved items.
in Jersey you can't buy anything hot. everything else goes I'm pretty sure. And then there's the program where you can only get certain predetermined things (snap maybe? - haven't finished the vid lol)
Zootycoonman223 in LA and PS I’ve seen people buy those precooked 7-11 pizzas and McDonald’s using EBT cards. He is right about the booze though. But on the flip side I’ve seen drug dealers take EBT cards as payment for drugs. It’s rare, seeing as how most would rather have cash in hand, but those selling meth and heroin are always in a rush to move their product and most of their customers are low income, so they take what they can get.
Actually, in some places you can use food stamps for prepared food, like for cold subs at Publix or Subway. I don't know if That's nationwide, but it's true in Florida. They have signs at the deli advertising "ebt approved". They just can't heat it up.
i do actually think sandwiches etc. are allowed due to them being served cold.. xD
Fountain drinks can be purchased if you don't put the straw in it. There was a woman in line very upset because she forgot and put the straw in and had to pay cash.
@@tcornettomaha You can definitely use EBT to buy cigarettes and alcohol. You just have to find a store that is crooked enough to do it. Usually these will be small "corner store" places and usually run by foriegners (at least in my area.) I know of two of them right now. Used to be three but one got busted for fraud and the owner got deported.
In new Orleans you can buy any cold cut sandwich and you can buy candy with your food stamp card
Full-on fast food usage in California... large signs in the windows at KFC “welcoming” EBT use. It is disappointing.
I worked as a cashier at a grocery store and WIC checks were pretty annoying and scary to do because if you messed it up you could get fired.
This video is a great example of why we don't have Moderates anymore.
Reason and thoughtfulness? What are you, some sort of socialist?
I was a 99er... I did not know there was a name for it... and I support all of these programs and more. Grew up part of this program, part of that one...So many acronyms, too many TBH.
These days, I don't qualify for any of them... though just barely? I probably should look into it... but I'm glad to know they're there for those who do need them.
Keep on passing the knowledge, maybe it'll even reach ears that need to hear it. Sorry, I'm many things but I'm far too pragmatic to be an optimist.
So you express no obvious limit as to when the government SHOULDN'T provide? More is always better, right?
That's why you, and this video, don't qualify as "moderates".
@@suserman7775 I'm not a moderate, I myself am a socialist. My opening comment was a sarcastic take on why the "moderate" economic stance is dead.
It's either "Yeah, Government intervention!" or "Government should stay out of where it doesn't belong... provided I get everything that's coming to me as defined by the Government." My own take is that only Government can solve Government sized problems and that certain things should not be run for profit.
Example: The point of healthcare should be a healthy populace, not profit. This OBVIOUS stance makes me a socialist.
@@tskmaster3837
You mix intention with results. Capitalism yields higher technology and better results when its intention is PROFIT.
Socialism reduces incentive for investment, risk, and work. Its result is equality of poverty.
@@suserman7775 looks like the result of capitalism is having more empty homes in the US than homeless people
Late to the party here, but hardcore socialists (not social democrats or something like that) aren't exactly fans of welfare either - they saw it as a stopgap measure but not a solution, and said without other plans, it's not sustainable in the long-term. Instead, they're pushing to remove the reason to be on welfare in the first place by "owning the means of production." Basically all businesses should be run by everyone who work there rather than shareholders - every businesses are worker co-ops (and yes, this kind of business do exists in capitalistic societies, but socialists want to make it as the only type of business).
Hence in monopoly, you get $200 every time you go around the board. Interesting. That $200 has helped me come back after disaster roll of the diceand win the game (monopoly).
$200 is nothing by the mid/late game when a single title can lose you hundreds of dollars.
@@TheKrouton just goes to show how you have to update welfare with inflation
@@GY-bd9bo might be the dumbest shit ive heard all week
@betatalk357 Its more likely they will land moire on your hotels and owe you even more but I guess you aint gonna lose anything at this point
Unfortunately life isn’t like monopoly. And even if it was, for you to win everyone else had to lose.
"If you filled out FAFSA you likely received a Pell Grant"
Unless you're me.... then you got $0.00.
Most Veterans are denied as well due to their GI bill and if you used the post 911 I still have to work to keep my family afloat do to not recieving any benifits such as Base housing assistance like I do when im in school. So now im disabled fighting to keep my mill retirement and attempting to better my life while having to take jobs that worsen my injuries from the army this is all to make ends meet and it sucks but I do it because there is a light at the end and I have faith in myslef to move up.
I didn't get any Pell Grant either. You had to be dirt poor to qualify when I applied to college in 1991, and it was only $2000 per semester anyway. I only qualified for subsidized Stafford loans, but only enough to pay for about half of the cost of attending the school I did. It was a private school, but hey, at least it was an Ivy. My parents weren't wealthy at all. They got a windfall inheritance at just the right time that allowed them to send me to college and my brother to a private secondary school.
For the first three years I didn’t get any Pell Grant money, but my last year of college I went to, since my brother also went to college, I received some Pell Grant money, guess the government thought I was considered poor after my brother went to college, and it didn’t really help because the bill was over $30,000 :(
That’s because you’re rich haha
@Cherry The average in the US is 60K.
I’m really enjoying this video and the context you provide is really helpful when it comes to correcting any previous incorrect notions I might’ve held. That said, I have been on snap myself, grew up in a quintessentially poor family, leaning towards trailer trash if you know what I mean.
I would like to correct one thing, when it comes to the snap benefits, you can buy junk food, it’s not going off of the food pyramid.
You can buy sodas, you can buy energy drinks, and in some stores, you can purchase cold Starbucks drinks/food if they have a Starbucks inside of the Safeway or Kroger store .
You most definitely cannot purchase cigarettes or alcohol, though it is a fairly common practice amongst the least trustworthy people, to trade food stamp benefits for money.
You can get food stamps as soon as you turn 18, just say your couch surfing or your parents kicked you out or what have you and you’ve got them.
Say hey, I’ll give you 20 bucks in food stamps if you give me 15 bucks so I can go get some beers or whatever, it’s not uncommon. Is it widespread and rampant and worthy vitriol that it inspires some? No I don’t think so.
Maybe I’m nitpicking I just wanted to bring that up because my experiences growing up and having used these services throughout my life, I know that there is some shady stuff going on. (I’m in Oregon btw)
The complete moderate’s guide to the political spectrum
that sounds like a fun one, especially now in these polarized times
I like it!
@Sean H. Antifarts--------Chill Dudes--------Natsees. *fixed
Left is betabicth, right is alpha. That is moderate guide of political spectrum
I want to see this one haha :)
That ad segway at the end, while funny, is ABSOLUTELY one of the best reasons to have UBI, now people could take time from work to skill up and become more advance and valuable members of society.
“Money travels through walls by osmosis or somethin’ I don’t know”
The concern I've had about Universal Basic Income is a suspicion that prices would simply inflate to make sure you still couldn't be livably housed and fed on it, no matter where we set the dial.
its socialism, just more classy.
Young able bodied people do not need that type of help.
We need asocial safety net for any citizen, with a time limit.
Yeah, it’s not a suspicion, it’s basic economics that UBIers either ignore or cannot comprehend.
@Brayan Velez quit being lazy
@@brian2090 Enjoy worrying about medical bills on your death bed LOL
Dude, you are a legend....pretty sure I'd be failing my High School Social Studies class if I didn't find your channel
Love from Scotland
Knowing Better and Donoteat01 is better than I deserve in 2019 . . . but I'll gladly take it!
PEACE
How many of you realised that part of the video is from Cities Skylines
Best game 10/10 IGN
I Know at the moment i hear donoteats voich
UBI really seems like the only way to deal with the march of automation, but that being said it'd be a fine way to encourage artisan and artistic endeavors once people don't have to fear for their income and I support both. I feel that a UBI would inspire more creative ventures and risk taking (as in new ideas) that could only benefit us overall and bring us back to parity with other developed nations.
I think the opposite. Watch joe rogan podcast or ben saphiro vs andrew yang. How many unfunny people u know who wants to he a comedian? There are some for me. How many weakass people u know who wants to be athlete? I know some. What people aspire to be arent necessarily what they are meant to be. If that's the case the world will run out of accountant and plumbers coz everyone would just "do whatever they think they're good at instead of what they're actually good at". Anyway geniuses would still generate stuffs regardless wheather there is UBI or not.
@@johndaly2816 The problem isn't about geniuses who altogether account for very little overall, and also still require money to do their thing. Did you think Einstein just did his thing? He worked a deadend office job for years before he was able to publish his theories. Imagine if he had gotten a stipend and could dedicate all his day's energies to working on his theories instead.
Moving on, the majority of being good is practice and experience. Something you can get a lot more of if you have more free time and less risk of going broke. And the idea we'd run out of labor is astoundingly misled; if anything the reduction of risk would increase the number of small businesses dramatically. The number one reason that people decide to not pursue opening shop is because they fear losing their income or cannot allocate funds to starting a business. Both can be alleviated via a UBI. Imagine all the painters, carpenters, etc that are stuck doing dumb work just to pay bills instead of dedicating themselves to their craft.
And finally, a UBI is not an infinite check to buy everything your heart desires. It's just enough to cover the costs of living and no more. To have a more luxurious life, you will still need to work, and most people will still want to buy cool things and go find a job. Which may be easier to get because a UBI means you can actually reduce or remove the minimum wage since it would be obsolete in the face of a UBI.
It's all nuanced and balances out in the end. Ben "if the oceans rise just sell the house" Shapiro is a brainless hack, and last I knew Rogan supported UBI. I need not address either here.
@@nicolaspinto2927 dont get me wrong, im supporter of andrew yang. There are reasons to support UBI but the "so people can follow their dreams" is one of the silliest reasons. Im aspiring bodybuilder and train in the gym a lot. Yet i have my genetic limitation. No matter how much i train i wont even make it to national level, there is limit to each human potential. No u dont simply be a pro just by working hard. You should do what u are really good at with UBI, instead of what you want to be good at.
Wishful thinking often leads to big disappointment
Where as I think means tested based benefits is a needlessly complicated badly managed system that is rife for kicking people of at a persons whim and having a universal payout for everyone saves beurocratic costs and time
I think people sometimes forget who also benefits from the SNAP program...The agricultural industry.
@@gomahklawm4446 yeah, as someone who works in federal crop insurance, you’ve got it backwards. Take away the “subsidies” and prices necessarily increase, as does literally all of the food you purchase. The system keeps the price of agricultural products artificially low so that manufactured food products are also cheap.
I'm a liberal and I support these programs, but I also understand why a lot of people dislike them.
I have been working at a job in retail, waiting on people I KNOW are drug addicts who choose to avoid work at all costs (I live in a small town and actually know that's the truth, I'm not just guessing and judging). It's annoying to be slaving for a shitty paycheck and serving someone who seems lazy and ungrateful.
What people don't see is the stories like my family. My mom was a single mom and welfare programs helped us survive while my mom went back to school and worked. Eventually we got back into the middle class. The reality is that many decent people fall on hard times.
One more thing; I think we need to work on programs that educate and train people more. Throwing money at the problem isn't always the best. A goal of self sufficiency should be strived for, instead of the current welfare trap system we have now.
This is what welfare should be, a method to get people back on their feet. It shouldn't be some redistribution scheme, otherwise you end up hurting very nearly everyone. The rich and middle class have less money, and the poor have money but they have no incentive to work or to work harder, which hurts themselves as well as everyone else.
i dont really understand your point at the end, the majority of these programs are means-tested and a lot of contingent on being employed, in training or actively looking.
@@reactedgnat9344 "The rich and the middle class have less money" Sorry, explain please. I keep trying to picture that as a problem but "the rich get richer" and "the end of the middle class" headlines keep getting in the way.
Is there such a thing as "living wage" in your mind or that people can work for hours and hours a week in multiple jobs and still not be paid enough to live?
"The poor have no incentive to work" Is that a code for something? Because I feels it has to tie in somewhere with people who live "paycheck from paycheck". It's a carrot and stick method where they dangle a carrot but hit you with the stick... do I have do spell out who "they" are?
Tskmaster elaborate further
@@janramos3050 There's very little Middle Class left or so I've heard; I'd consider them to be the savings class... not people who are giving a huge sum of money and just live off the interest, these aren't those people... and as savings are at an all time low, there's more to the "end of the Middle Class" then just a headline. There's too much concentrated wealth for capitalism to work; What is their incentive to make more money if they already have that much of it? Greed, are we supposed to rely on the Goodwill of Greed? No, ignore the super-rich and ignore super-corporations and focus on the small businessman, there's where the Conservatives love to say where the action is, where the focus is... where the votes are, honestly as corporations can't vote YET. I don't see them as villain or victim, just caught in an unfortunate situation of extremes but they just happen to vote with people who want the same things, just for more nefarious reasons. Wait, aren't they being used as hostages? "Vote for no minimum wage increases and low taxes or the small businessman gets it!" "What about the large corporations who employ far more people?" "Pay them no heed, they're just trying to make a buck, same as everyone else! There just HAPPENS to be more of them."
My own thinking is, argue with if you like: Don't rely on Capitalism to make life better, rely on it to make money. Take PART of that money and do something positive with it towards improving society. "That's what charities are for!" No, that's just another form of tax havens, if you want to call it a redistribution of wealth rather than simple taxation, so be it. Just do it.
I fully support the idea of a living wage and whatever means exist to bring it about. Take money from places where there are too many zeroes and bring it to places where there are only zeroes. Don't worry, it'll end up back there in no time because that's how money moves. "But they'll just have to do it again, year after year." or "What if it goes to people who'll waste it?" or "What if it goes to people who don't need it?" 1 Yes. 2 There's no such thing as waste spending, only waste saving 3 Then they don't need it but they have it anyway? If it's the right amount all around, it shouldn't matter in any case.
The US has some seriously problems, with understanding what help people in real poverty need.
We all do, all over the world, but the US has some seriously deficent ”welfare” programs.
I think it's on purpose.
Welfare breeds more welfare
@first last Right! That's one welfare program I'd support. That is mandatory birth control for those on welfare.
chris532008 that’s factually incorrect. People on welfare aren’t jobless anymore than non-welfare people. Unless you mean “having welfare means more people will be on welfare because they don’t just die off instead”. Which is nazi shit
@@MrFixIt-le7tl that is since Japan has a shitty workplace life and a shitty alcohol addiction problem. Tax alcohol and tobacco, heavily crack down on ijime, force compensated overwork hours, legalize taima, encourage childcare and increased children, give college test assistance to the poor, and create more social opportunities for people that don't have to do with alcohol. Why is this so hard?
Thank you for your service. As in, thanks for your fantastic and educational TH-cam content!
Gives me hope that I'm not the only ex military who really ended up with a critical and analytical world view, and learning more than a little towards what people call the left.
4:15 Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring, obamaphone
BOOP BOOP BUD DOOP *uhm...* BI DOOP!
SkeledroMan i hate you, I’m at work and I had to suppress laughter with such difficulty when I read this I got a headache, this is too freakin hilarious.
I like Obamas, because they have no bones.
Telecommunications Act of 1934, dipshit. Updated to cover cell phones while Bush was president.
am i the only one that sees this joke's racism?
My grandma is 92 and uses a landline. My grandpa though, used the internet at age 94 and traded stocks
my landline has an "adapter - analog (rotary dial impulses) to digital - that lets me use my 1932 "candlestick" phone and a 80's touch-tone.
my neighbours watch stunned and awed when i made a call on it. 😁😁😲😲
"Is there something for the middle class? Yes, it's called a 30-year mortgage."
The reason your channel DOMINATES my TH-cam viewing, is because you start by DEFINING the subject you are discussing. So many channels involving people just start talking about a subject, these subjects often have vague interpretations for different people, which invariable leads to persons essentially arguing over different parts of the same elephant (I hope you know the parable of the 7 blind indian men and the Elephant)
I don't always agree with you, but you are exceptionally rare talent. Thanks for existing. Please don't ever stop Defining exactly what you are talking about.
Love the cities skylines gameplay footage half way through. The game nearly looks realistic to someone unfamiliar with it. 😊
You can buy anything with ebt. As long as you find the right seller
20:17 That man just walked straight into traffic!
Tanf = pronounced like tariff but with an n. This is ANOTHER GREAT VIDEO. LOVE your work. Outstanding, thought-provoking, and in places, side-splitting!
LOL Underwater basketweaving is everyone's favorite "worthless" skill people love to pick on. But in reality, it's not only a real, and very difficult skill, it's not at all what most people think it is. It's not scuba diving while weaving a basket. It's a process of weaving done in a tub or body of water. You wet the material so that when it dries, it's extremely tight, watertight, and can keep the contents inside remarkably well. Such baskets are extremely useful, and if you are one of the very very few who still possess this skill, you can charge a lot for those baskets. It's a real way to earn a living, actually. Now, stop using it as a punchline.
“Commercial’s over”
*starts a commercial*
Now *that* was a slick Skillshare pivot.
(Also a great video, as usual.)
I love how I’m just listening along only for Rizzo/donoteat01 to make a voice cameo 23 min in. What a nice surprise
As an American its sort've heartbreaking knowing with all the senseless bureaucracy and the general sloth of our politicians, as an 18 year old a Universal Basic Income won't happen in my lifetime.
Nope because of people like Ben Shapiro and the Conservatives™
@@andreiz112dn5 No it's because the establishment swamp prefer the radical left like AOC and swept sensible people with actual solutions like Andrew Yang under the rug. Crazy how conservative media like fox news and daily wire are more welcoming of UBI than the radical left.
@@andreiz112dn5 conservatives aren't evil people, they just accept reality better and work on actual solutions instead of using slogans like "tax the billionaires!!"
Great video. Thanks for making this. Would you consider making a video about a government shutdown? I'm a federal employee and feeling the pain of working and not getting paid right now, but I know there is a lot of confusion about shutdowns and what they mean. Also, how the USG funds things (appropriations). Thanks for the great work!
lol, I kind of love how you can never see your sponsors coming.
FYI regarding the basic income project in Canada. It was in the 70s in Dauphine Manitoba i believe and lasted only 3 years. Since then it has seldom been readdressed. For a time a similar project was taking place here in Ontario but was ended prematurely by the incoming Conservative government as a means of cutting costs. Notably the same government covertly gave themselves raises and extra living expenses with the ppl of Ontario only finding out months after....
"...yOu DiSaBiLiTy..."
Yes. I disability.
i clicked because i thought it said "The Complete Moderators Guide to Warfare"
and that the thumbnail was of a soldier lying prone
As someone who receives SNAP, you most certainly CAN buy candy with it. Also, in my shitty state (Oklahoma), EVERYTHING has Sales Tax applied to it, including all food, no exceptions. However, sales tax is removed when you use SNAP.
the fact that Monopoly is famous for its rules being bent all the time shows that people intuitively know that a government is needed for the "free market" to work.
3:16 in Europe literally everyone receives welfare. At least if you accept healthcare as welfare
I feel like a good first step is removing the need to be in a single-parent family to be in any of these programs. The best way to get out of poverty is to be in a stable home. The programs should get you out of poverty but it’s up to you to stay out of poverty.
Indeed, when government incentivizes the very thing that almost ensure poverty you aren’t going to get very far, no matter how much money you throw at it. It’s like investing in a high school where half of the students are gang members. Money cannot fix all problems.
@@brian2090 the government does not incentivise these programs. No one can survive on welfare money.
I would like to know more about the Universal Basic Income, because that subject still hasn't quite clicked with me. I very much appreciate your mythbusting and providing of sources
Look more into the canada experiment, this bloke failed to tell you about an important fact. The reason why few people stopped working was because they knew the program was only temporary and couldn’t rely on it.
Oh hey donoteat hell yeah, did not expect you but delighted to hear your voice
A few things. I was on snap for a few years in Pennsylvania back living w one of my parents. You totally can buy candy with an ebt card, and I don’t think anyone believes you can buy tobacco and alcohol directly with food stamps. What you can do is go to a deli or a corner store and have the owner or someone give u cash for food stamps . It’s sketchy and illegal but a lot of mom and pop shops in poorer areas do it. (Not that I ever did that, I lived in an Irish town. We had bars instead of delis)
Kurzgesagt is pronounced as "Koortz-gezaagt" (Yes. "z" in German is pronounced as "tz") It means "in short" in German
Technically the child tax credits “assists” you to help you pay for childcare.
But $1k is still so low lol
I mean its free money. You really can't complain its low. You can't expect the government to pay for you to have children.
Spartan Life over a third of the USA originally was Latin America
@@muscularcatholicism There‘s either a lesson or an incredibly morbid joke in there, and I can’t decide which it is.
* Food Stamps can be used on candy as well as sodas and other "junk foods". Many of those items add sales tax UNLESS you pay with EBT cards (at least in Texas)
The combined income for each person from the welfare programs would likely be more than just the $635, because there would be fewer administrative expenses. One government agency (or at most one per state) would be sending out checks. There would be no time spent investigating how much each person gets.
You can't buy pet food on snap? What am I supposed to eat on Saturday nights?
never clicked so fast ona video
wooooow, going back to videos ive missed, hearing donoteat threw me for a loop
I surprised myself by falling into Florida's healthcare coverage hole. After working full time and paying taxes for 20 years i had to quit to take care of my disabled mother full time. Turns out i qualify for neither aha or medicaid… ..yay…
"Food stamps are like the food pyramid without the top."
At my place of work, people frequently use EBT to purchase soda and candy, so...
In fact, candy and soda are the most purchased items with SNAP.
Jacob Friedman thanks for the lies
@@ShidaiTaino Why do you think I'm lying?
@@ShidaiTaino not Sure if you’re uninformed or just stupid
Um, actually all of my grandparents still have a landline. They also have cell phones.
Figure of speech man. Let it go.
@@FW-jq1ox I was joking.
I was fucking ***NOT*** expecting donoteat01 to be in this. Holy shit.
The American Public housing system has also been a historical travesty from an architectural and design standpoint, which was something Jane Jacobs fought hard to show. If you haven't read her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities or seen the documentary Citizen Jane: Battle for the City I would highly recommend them.
I'm for UBI in principal. I see it as a way to invest in future innovation among many other benefits.
What I see as the Achilles heel of UBI is market/price fluctuations.
I'm writing this comment 3 years after this video was posted and only a year after I came around to the idea. Yet in 2022 we've seen retail and housing companies raising their prices without corresponding market pressures. In my own area rent has jumped 300% in the past 2 years. An apartments that used to cost $500/mo now costs $1200-1800/mo. As one example.
I suppose tying UBI to cost of living would help, I fear the lag time between adjustments would be disastrous to families. Yet price controls gets into another dicey area that seems a mine field to me, though I'm not an economist.
You would be surprised at how many people can live below the "poverty line" and be absolutely happy.
i do though not always cheerfully... Someone to talk to/watch vids is Prepper Princess. She is startlingly capable, intelligent, and more than capable of living well below the poverty line without hunger or lack of protection from the elements.
19:17 apologies if you are already aware, but Evicted by Mathew Desmond explores how housing and eviction impacts poverty- in it he explores how Voucher programs were promoted at the expense of public housing (and sponsored by land/home owning groups) and contribute to higher rent prices, further pricing people out of affordable housing and undermining preexisting sense of community in renting areas. Highly recommend.