# Jim Quinn: Slaves were better off than those on welfare **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 3, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645 "2009-01-03T00:03:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/1 "2009-01-03T00:03:49Z")
[According to Jim Quinn](http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012?f=s_search), slaves didn’t have it so bad-see, they had free room and board, they got rewarded for having kids, free food. Just like those on welfare-they just had to work for it, see. Criticizing the current state of welfare is one thing. Comparing it to slavery, and saying that slaves were better off, is entirely another. Because it’s much better to be, literally, someone property, to have to worry about being sold and having your family split up-to be forced to be someone concubine, whippings, beatings, downright torture and murder. Forced to work from sun-up to sundown, non stop, dying of disease and very little food. But hey-you got free room and board! The stupidity, it knows no bounds. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/2 "2009-01-03T00:16:13Z")
Could you fix link please? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/3 "2009-01-03T00:18:31Z")
Here’s the right link: [http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012?f=s\_search](http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012?f=s_search). Not only is he an idiot, but he’s factually incorrect in almost everything he says. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/4 "2009-01-03T00:35:58Z")
Slaves got free money that they had to work for? Too much idiocy in this to even work up a good lather of outrage. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/5 "2009-01-03T00:39:16Z")
Right, and a life of slavery didn’t last that long, anyway. (See the life expectancy figures on slaves.) But most of these welfare queens sit around and collect money for years and years!!! \ ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/6 "2009-01-03T00:42:30Z")
Yeah, too dumb to get mad about. Mr. Quinn has apparently forgotten the fact that slavery wasn’t optional. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/7 "2009-01-03T00:46:05Z")
> [@Captain\_Carrot](#): > > Here’s the right link: [http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012?f=s\_search](http://mediamatters.org/items/200811060012?f=s_search). Not only is he an idiot, but he’s factually incorrect in almost everything he says. :smack: Thanks. I love the ending “Oh, right-the truth stings, doesn’t it?” Not as much as a whip, Mr. Quinn. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/8 "2009-01-03T00:56:46Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > [According to Jim Quinn](http://mediamatters.org/discuss/200811060), slaves didn’t have it so bad-see, they had free room and board, they got rewarded for having kids, free food. Just like those on welfare-they just had to work for it, see. > Criticizing the current state of welfare is one thing. Comparing it to slavery, and saying that slaves were better off, is entirely another. Because it’s much better to be, literally, someone property, to have to worry about being sold and having your family split up-to be forced to be someone concubine, whippings, beatings, downright torture and murder. Forced to work from sun-up to sundown, non stop, dying of disease and very little food. But hey-you got free room and board! > > The stupidity, it knows no bounds. Its stupidity all right, but I’d suggest you missed the point. If you read further down **Captain Carrot’s** link you’ll get a fuller text of his statement giving a completely different context. Quinn is merely suggesting that it is Republicans that have been the party responsible for the abolition of slavery and the push for civil rights while the Democrats are responsible for the four Ss, slavery and socialism included. His claim is that welfare looks a lot like slavery with a twist, both being characteristic of Democratic Party policy. Stupid yes, but I don’t see any serious attempt to paint slavery as anything better than it was ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/9 "2009-01-03T01:18:28Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > Its stupidity all right, but I’d suggest you missed the point. > If you read further down **Captain Carrot’s** link you’ll get a fuller text of his statement giving a completely different context. > > Quinn is merely suggesting that it is Republicans that have been the party responsible for the abolition of slavery and the push for civil rights while the Democrats are responsible for the four Ss, slavery and socialism included. > > His claim is that welfare looks a lot like slavery with a twist, both being characteristic of Democratic Party policy. Trying to establish a consistent thread to the major parties’ policies from before the Civil War to today is also pretty stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/10 "2009-01-03T01:24:51Z")
The Republican Party and the Democrat Party of the 1860s were NOT the same as they are today, **Flying Douchebag**. And I DID read the whole statement, and I still say it’s just as offensive. I remember Jim Quinn used to do a local radio show around here in the late 80s, early 90s. It was cancelled when he was sued for sexual harassment, after making on-air remarks about a coworker’s skills at oral sex. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/11 "2009-01-03T01:26:22Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > Yeah, too dumb to get mad about. Mr. Quinn has apparently forgotten the fact that slavery wasn’t optional. But if you listen to the librulz, neither is being a welfare queen!!! If only there was some way to blame the French and the Jews in all of this… -Joe ---
**Author:** ![curlcoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea5d25/32.png) [@curlcoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curlcoat)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/12 "2009-01-03T03:46:54Z")
I know you all will love the opportunity to jump all over me again, but I am not reading this as his saying that slaves were better off than those on welfare. What I am seeing is that those on welfare are living in the same sort of poverty (supported by either the government or the owner) as slaves, but at least the slaves worked. I am reading this as him just saying that the slaves were a better bargain for the money. Which is gross, but totally different than slaves were better off than welfare people are now. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/13 "2009-01-03T03:55:18Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Which is gross, but totally different than slaves were better off than welfare people are now. Sure, that’s saying that white people were better off when black people were slaves rather than on welfare. Which is more than gross; it’s horrific. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/14 "2009-01-03T03:55:42Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I remember Jim Quinn used to do a local radio show around here in the late 80s, early 90s. It was cancelled when he was sued for sexual harassment, after making on-air remarks about a coworker’s skills at oral sex. And he credits the “eye-opening” he got about the evil liberal feminists who have made it impossible for a man to _say on the radio to an audience of tens of thousands that his co-worker had things tattooed on her scalp about her oral sex preferences_ for his current political beliefs. Jim Quinn is a douchebag. He was one when he hung out with an idiot called Banana, and he’s still one today. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/15 "2009-01-03T04:04:04Z")
Right-wingers are still beating up on welfare queens? Didn’t they go out of style about a decade ago, to be replaced by leprosy-carrying illegal immigrants? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/16 "2009-01-03T04:24:06Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > The Republican Party and the Democrat Party of the 1860s were NOT the same as they are today, **Flying Douchebag**. This isn’t the thread for it, but I think the argument can be made that both parties appeal to the same sort of constituants now as they did in the 1860s, and while there have obviously been big changes in both parties, their underlying values are still similar to their 1860 versions. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/17 "2009-01-03T05:06:37Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > The Republican Party and the Democrat Party of the 1860s were NOT the same as they are today, **Flying Douchebag**. Thanx for the history lesson **Gynostegia** I might add that Americans of the 1860s are not the same as they are today as well. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/18 "2009-01-03T05:21:12Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > This isn’t the thread for it, but I think the argument can be made that both parties appeal to the same sort of constituants now as they did in the 1860s, and while there have obviously been big changes in both parties, their underlying values are still similar to their 1860 versions. And the argument can be made ( and I’ll make it ) that the parties have switched sides. If slavery were legal now, it’s the modern Republicans who would be fighting to keep it, and the Democrats to eliminate it. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/19 "2009-01-03T11:51:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And the argument can be made ( and I’ll make it ) that the parties have switched sides. Yeah, they really have. Anyone who paid attention in a college US History class should know this. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645/20 "2009-01-03T14:37:02Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And the argument can be made ( and I’ll make it ) that the parties have switched sides. If slavery were legal now, it’s the modern Republicans who would be fighting to keep it, and the Democrats to eliminate it. That seems to be one of those statements that you really can’t support, I don’t think. Certainly neither modern party wants to reinstate slavery, and if slavery had been legal all this time, the parties would have developed differently than they did. But in terms of coalitions, the Democrats are still the party of the urban poor, Catholics, and immigrants, while the Republicans are still the party of farmers, evangelicals, and business owners. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jim-quinn-slaves-were-better-off-than-those-on-welfare/479645.md?page=2)