# Do we have less compassion for the poor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 15, 2015, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707 "2015-02-15T06:33:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/241 "2015-02-20T23:15:52Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > The fact remains that under this Administration, in violation of the President’s own executive order, fraud is around 25% when it comes to the EITC. > > Are you OK with that? I wouldn’t say I am OK with it, but that the country has considerably more pressing problems and bigger wastes of taxpayer dollars that should be prosecuted before it goes after a program that actually does help poor people. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/242 "2015-02-20T23:56:51Z")
^ This. No, I’m not OK with any level of fraud, but I suspect the problem is with the IRS enforcement/auditing rather than personally with Mr. Obama. Are you under the delusion that _other_ administrations were somehow magically free of corruption? What about Reagan’s administration [selling arms to our enemies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair) or the Watergate scandal under Nixon involving breaking and entry, you know, felonies? This is like asking if I’m upset about the scraped paint on my car when the real problem is the flat tire. No, I don’t want the pain scraped and I’ll fixed it when feasible but under the greater reality if the tire isn’t fixed it’s a far more serious problem both short and long term. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/243 "2015-02-21T02:41:02Z")
> [@Syne](#): > > Just as an observer following this, the below argument pretty much trumps all conservative talking points. Wealth is structural and it inhibits class mobility. Until we can fix the simple reality that the playing field is NOT level for all, it seems ridiculous to me to campaign for austerity, which always disproportionately affects the have nots. Except that first-generation Asian children typically grow up very poor and work their way up to middle-or-upper class within their lifetimes. Then the second-generation kids watch tv all day and smoke pot with their friends. Culture and parenting are the keys to mobility in our society. Not wealth distribution (yet). ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/244 "2015-02-21T03:23:43Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Are you under the delusion that _other_ administrations were somehow magically free of corruption? What about Reagan’s administration [selling arms to our enemies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair) or the Watergate scandal under Nixon involving breaking and entry, you know, felonies? It’s telling that you only mention Republican administrations, and not democrat administrations. Were you Ok with workplace sexual harassment in the Clinton administration? ---
**Author:** ![Lemmytheseal2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@Lemmytheseal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemmytheseal2)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/245 "2015-02-21T04:57:16Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Except that first-generation Asian children typically grow up very poor and work their way up to middle-or-upper class within their lifetimes. Then the second-generation kids watch tv all day and smoke pot with their friends. > > Culture and parenting are the keys to mobility in our society. Not wealth distribution (yet). Just-world fallacy. Also, not all Asian-American communities fit that “model minority” image, and besides, I’m reminded of a recent flurry of tweets and other statements from Asian-Americans who, successful as they may be, resented such “model minority” positive stereotyping for, among other things, its anti-Black implications. > [@D\_Anconia](#): > > It’s telling that you only mention Republican administrations, and not democrat administrations. > > Were you Ok with workplace sexual harassment in the Clinton administration? I know you didn’t ask me, but personally I’d be opposed to workplace sexual harassment anywhere, but I don’t put that on the same scale as, say, Clinton’s killing of a million people or so in Iraq, plus thousands more in Serbia and Sudan and elsewhere. Similarly, Nixon’s astoundingly cruel crimes abroad should have gotten him in trouble, not Watergate. As for Reagan, selling weapons to Iran was the least of his misdeeds. Any decent society would have tossed him from power long before his administration ever got the opportunity to covertly raise funds for the Contras, because his administration’s earlier, overt support for the Contras was plenty evil on its own! ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/246 "2015-02-21T11:51:48Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > It’s telling that you only mention Republican administrations, and not democrat administrations. > > Were you Ok with workplace sexual harassment in the Clinton administration? Let’s get something clear. Just because I don’t think something is a dire emergency does not mean I’m “OK” with it. Due to limited resources I’ve had to learn to do something called “prioritize”, which some people don’t seem to have heard of before. For example: It’s more important to go after a murderer than a thief, because the murderer is more likely to physically hurt or kill you. That doesn’t mean theft is OK. Clinton putting his penis in Monica’s mouth was icky and wrong, but honestly, the people that could be hurt by that were very limited in number. NAFTA, welfare restructuring, Family and Medical Leave Act, HIPAA, deficit reduction, the Oslo Accords, Defense of Marriage Act, and attempted immigration reform all impacted a hell of a lot more people and thus, from a societal standpoint, were much more important and significant than Clinton’s sex life. **I have been very firm that I am opposed to fraud,** approve of auditing these programs even though I would be one of the ones subject to audit (indeed, I have _been_ audited). How the HELL you think that I would be “OK” with it is baffling, However, I think abolishing a program because of 25% fraud when 75% of participants rely on the program to help them with such basic survival needs as housing, clothing, transportation, medical care, and the like is foolish. Fix the program, don’t eliminate it. If it’s not getting fixed then audit the goddamned agency with that responsibility to find out WHY it’s not getting done - funding problems? problem employees? problem management? From my standpoint you give up too easily. What ever made you think that fixing this problem would be easy? The executive order was a _start_, not the final fix. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2015, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/247 "2015-02-21T13:38:16Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Since when is unemployment insurance considered welfare? > Which also includes things for public health like the CDC - you’re implying that every dime of that goes to the poor? > Oh, HORRORS! _Feeding school children!_ Where will it end? Free public education? …The horror is that you took your faulty math and turned it back on me. Nice try. :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707.md?page=12)