Some people get very precious about the ‘work’ that they do…they feel that taking jobs beneath their qualifications and/or their station is tantamount to committing employment suicide!
Instead, they sponge off the taxpayer dollar via unemployment and disability benefits.
Ka-Ching. :rolleyes:
See, I cannot measure “worth” in that way; even on its own terms, it is incoherent.
Take for example my grandmother. She never earned a cent in her life (well, that may not be literally true - she worked as a schoolteacher I think for a year or so - but almost). Is she then valueless?
Yet she gave birth to, and raised, three children, one of whom went on to become a famous writer, another to be a prominent scientist; her grand-children include engineers, physicists, artists (and lawyers - well, three out of four … :D). If she did not exist, neither would any of us.
So a cold hearted utilitarian manager of society (should any be found) would, quite logically, assign her a rather high utilitarian value - her loss to society in childhood would have had very bad effects, in spite of the fact that she herself did not earn any money.
Similarly, when a child is lost, what is lost is all of that child’s potential - the achievements and relationships they might have had, the children that they may have raised.
I am of course excluding from consideration any emotional impact, and simply considering, from a cold-hearted perspective, their utilitarian value.
If a person is well off, he/she shouldn’t get welfare. It’s my OPINION.
That non Americans join this board is not your business as long as Cecil does not ask for a passport during the subscription of this board. Opinions count wherever you live.
I did pay taxes in the US twice, btw.
Are you insane??? I never said that YOU have said that. Remember, I had a discussion with curlcoat, you rushed to her defense, I answer you, and now you say that you never said it? Curlcoat did, for Christ’s sake. You should check your long term memory.
Well, then help me to correct it:
So, although you are not currently applying for it, you did do so in the past.
Do you want to maintain that?
The one where you only get EXACTLY what you pay - as you request: you do not pay any taxes (I could start a petition to enforce that). But you are not allowed to use roads, parks, welfare, disability payments, short, anything paid for with taxes.
That’s what I would prefer. But only for you.
Someone from Australia is going to insist to me that their definition of welfare is the correct one? Uh huh.
If you will note, at least one dictionary doesn’t agree with you
Blatant discrimination, that’s what it is! I have bad binocular vision and am terrible at tennis. Tennis courts should be banned! Banned, I tell you! I don’t want one more red cent of MY tax money going to those entitled selfish people who play tennis when they know full well that not everyone enjoys it!
Addendum: you should actually be grateful, you got 16/400,000,000 = 0.00000004$ of my money in 2002. I received a check from the US treasury, a tax refund of 16$. Since cashing it in in a bank in Lyon would have cost me 25$, I didn’t do it.
I swore I’d ignore this thread, but your suggestion is really hilarious. Imagine: curlcoat at a Help Desk. Using those People Skills!
Thanks.
And while we’re on this topic, I am going to sit down and write a letter to the city officials complaining that my tax dollars – my tax dollars! That I earned! By working my rear end off! MY MONEY DAMMIT!!! – are going to pay for the streets in the next neighborhood over. Do you know, I have never once driven down those streets, nor do I ever plan to? I am outraged that the city is continuing to provide maintenance to cater to the self-entitled assholes in that neighborhood over there. They are sucking on the city’s teat and MY MONEY is paying for THEIR STREETS. My blood pressure is sky-high just thinking about it. :mad:
Uh, no. Either you or whoever you picked this up from (Birdmonster?) is the one that asserted that, not me.
That’s why we have parks, where people of all ages can play and picnic. I don’t see why I am expected to pay more in taxes just because parents can’t be arsed to bring toys for their kids to play with while they are at the park.
:rolleyes: It is far more likely that a yard could fit a swing set than a bike trail or a tennis court.
I didn’t say you should.
I didn’t say there weren’t benches, I said that it isn’t park-like so it is unlikely that anyone would choose it as a nice place to have lunch. Nor would it be an interesting place to take a nice walk in spring and there is no place to tos a frisbee or ball around for any distance. If you like, I can stop on the way home from the doctor’s this afternoon and take a picture of the playground near my house?
Well, I have seen skateboarding, football tossing, kids doing what appeared to be races around the edge and occasionally when it is time to teach the really little ones to hit a baseball, they do it in the court if it is unoccupied. There are probably plenty of other things, that is just what I have personally seen as I drive by.
Don’t be an idiot. How often do you see anyone much older than 10 playing in a playground?
Typical. If I don’t like paying for something connected with children, I am supposed to just shut up and write a check.
“Madame, instead of complaining about a bottle warmer which does not work, you should have avoided getting knocked up in the first place! It’s people like you who spend my money, my taxes! Get the f*** out of this line!*”
Did you know that libraries have CHILDREN’S SECTIONS? Full of BOOKS for CHILDREN?! Why don’t these parents buy their own books for their kids?! Something MUST be DONE about these selfish, entitled people.
Once you fix your link, you might want to read that again and see if you can figure out which dictionary you’re referring to - because it isn’t that one.
What the hell does being Australian have to do with it? As I recall, you spend 15 pages in a thread once trying to tell Canadians you knew how their health insurance system worked better than they did.
Yes, please. Why don’t you do that? While you are at it, please find out from your city how much it costs them to maintain this playground yearly. Then find out how much it costs them to maintain your public tennis courts, bike trails, and dog runs, and come back and post the results. I am sure that this will be an illuminating exercise (no pun intended) for everyone in this thread. 
Playgrounds are actually rather expensive- not because of installation or maintenance costs, but because of liability. Every parent whose kid falls off the monkey bars files suit against the county or whoever.
Oh, well, that goes without saying. Hell, I filed three lawsuits just in the last six months due to a stubbed toe, merry-go-round-induced nausea, and monkey bar vertigo, respectively.
What is your definition of disabled? You do know it isn’t “can only lay in bed”, right?
No, I can’t. At this point I can only work from home, which is what I was doing for the last year of my working life.
That is only because you choose to assume the worst. And also because you apparently don’t understand disability.
Yeah, you do need to shut up and write the check. The fact that it doesn’t look like a park to you hardly matters. You don’t vote and you don’t work. Your vision is not in line with the rest of the community. Therefore, your opinion is irrelevant in all matters of civil planning.
My definition of disabled is immaterial. However, under the Social Security Administration’s definition, if you are capable of at least part time sedentary work, you are not totally disabled, which means you would receive PPD benefits, not PTD.
Why can you only work from home?
I understand disability quite well, thanks.