Those people you describe have no place in the job market. Their only value is to consume. Give them free money, so that they consume WoW, THC, beer and the like. Someone has to consume our overproduction.
But, I'm living in an area the US would call a project. Most of my neighbors are unemployed. Not because they are lazy bums, but because there are no jobs for those who are over 50, or are uneducated, or are single moms, or ... And there are no jobs that would pay a living wage. So its easier/better for them to stay unemployed, and earn unemployment money.
The people you describe are only a small fraction of the unemployed masses.
When another human being drops out of FREE high school and sleeps around and gets pregnant you want me to reward them for that? When you subsidize people's bad decisions you will get more bad decisions. When you give a safety net for purposely being stupid you will get more of it.
You want me to pay for someone else to do nothing with their life. Think about that for a moment.
My parents only had 2 children because they could only afford 2 children. If the US government rewarded my parents for having children, they would have the incentive to have more children. Technically it does (through taking advantage of the welfare system) but my parents are hard working immigrants and not freeloaders (not to be confused with people who are on short term welfare due to legitimate unforeseen events). They did not have more kids. Other people aren't so well behaved. Other people purposely have children so they can get welfare.
If the US funded planned parenthood more, legalized abortion in all 50 states (which women already want, see below), turn off welfare for pregnant women who cannot provide for their children but got pregnant anyway, and subsidized contraception to make it affordable beyond excuse, the kids of which you speak would not exist.
I know I sound like a cold android and YES you may call me an asshole but that's life, that's nature.
Every human has a right to reproduce but is responsible for taking care of their offspring. I am not responsible for funding YOUR children's existence. Civilized people already live this way:
"The biggest reasons why women have abortions are: that having a child would interfere with a woman’s education, work or ability to care for dependents (74%); that she could not afford a baby now (73%); and that she did not want to be a single mother or was having relationship problems (48%)." - http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3711005.pdf
Morality is well and good, but in the real world we have to focus on what works. Finland works. Germany works. The United States doesn't work as well, and desperately needs to improve.
Moralizing sermons have never solved problems and never will; only actual reform work can do that. Why are you so opposed to getting your hands dirty with reforming our system?
Have you lived, worked, or interacted with people who have been on long term welfare? What works in other countries can't be transferred over and work here like people think they can. Reform? Sure! I'm all up for it. In fact check my comment history about 6 months back and you'll see that I'm actually the one that suggested paying people a minimum income for being peaceful, since 100 years from now most jobs will be automated and the unemployment rate will skyrocket to over 50%. I have since abandoned that plan after careful consideration that things don't work out the way we intelligent human calculators think they will. Adjusting numbers on paper doesn't take into account for primitive human behavior.
I know we here at Hacker News are entrepreneurs and are dead set on trying 100 new crazy ideas of which 99 will fail and cost investors hundreds of millions and 1 will succeed and exit, ipo, or fizzle out in 5 years. We're so crazy we even try ideas that have already failed 12 times over thinking we're going to do something different this time. Humanity doesn't change as much as you think. You can't take the human out of the human. And this plan for giving away money or housing or food (which has already been tried numerous times) is dead on delivery.
> Adjusting numbers on paper doesn't take into account for primitive human behavior.
No, but treating humans like humans gets us to behave like good humans. Even in our own country we've seen murder rates go down year by year, with few anomalies, as we've cleaned up things like child abuse and spousal abuse and so on.
Primitive human behavior used to include bear-baiting and beating children bloody for not being able to recite a Latin passage correctly. Is it any wonder that reducing that has lead to fewer people who have no real compassion?
> You can't take the human out of the human. And this plan for giving away money or housing or food (which has already been tried numerous times) is dead on delivery.
Except in all the countries where it's worked for decades, right? Is the Nordic Model a fantasy, then?
Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are genetically and ethnically homogeneous, making it easier and faster for the society to enforce social norms and standards. Japan and South Korea are as well. That's why that system works so well and those countries are so...well... civilized and developed. What works for a homogeneous country will not automatically work for a heterogeneous country like America. There are some fucked up people living here. You really don't get it because you haven't been here. Again, like I said in my first comment, you have a good heart and good intentions but you might think this way because you've been living in a nice walled garden away from shitty people.
The people of a country determine the majority of its success. Not just it's laws. People from different countries, people from different backgrounds have different levels of civility. It may be cultural (which can be changed) or it may be genetic (which cannot be changed unless weeded out genetically). This is why I'm saying what works in one country won't automatically work in another.
Few people I have the chance to listen about such maters actually know what they are talking about. I upvoted your strings of replies here.
I live in Romania and here we always have had all kinds of immigrants from all around us. Maybe there were inter-ethnic tensions but the environment was always civilized, and the minorities integrated themselves (mostly) as a part of society. ...well, with one notable exception - the gypsies. The rest of the Europe are blaming us for not putting enough efforts on their education and integration but they do not seem to have an idea who the gypsies are and that is especially irritating. There are all kind of... let's say "peculiar" people in this world with whom it is difficult to accomplish things, but many of us are not willing or prepared to acknowledge this.
> Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are genetically and ethnically homogeneous, making it easier and faster for the society to enforce social norms and standards.
I have absolutely no time for racism. BTW, I'm American, born and raised.
But, I'm living in an area the US would call a project. Most of my neighbors are unemployed. Not because they are lazy bums, but because there are no jobs for those who are over 50, or are uneducated, or are single moms, or ... And there are no jobs that would pay a living wage. So its easier/better for them to stay unemployed, and earn unemployment money.
The people you describe are only a small fraction of the unemployed masses.