Mastodawn

They pay $34 for burgers. Should their fire department service be free? Opening a new fire department in one of NYC's richest neighborhoods has some of America's pettiest journalists asking silly questions in headlines again.🤡

The article acknowledges the fire department analogy, then blows past it.🤷🏿‍♂️

The solve for "Sometimes when a service like free childcare is available to all, marginalized communities get squeezed out," is "Address that racism."

It's not "Therefore waste incredible amounts of time and money trying to means test something that society should just make available to all.🤡"

Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag ⛈ 🐸3d ago

@mekkaokereke
When school lunch programs throw out the "who deserves to get free lunches?" and just provide for every child, the entire program is cheaper due to the lack of an enforcement layer, all children get fed, and children learn more and pay attention better.

Being overly concerned that someone might get something they don't "deserve" usually ends up screwing over the ones who need help most.

We're supposed to "promote the general welfare" of the public - not gate-keep who gets help.

@realtegan @mekkaokereke Sigh. I really hate the mindset of “what if someone undeserving benefits.”

So what? Especially when it involves children.

Dinah 🕊🇺🇦21h ago

@CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke

Most American thing is making 100 people suffer to avoid 1 freeloader.

@gbargoud But what if the wrong children get to eat? @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke

Bruce Mirken 3d ago

@Thad @gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke This whole discussion is so silly because any perceived problem is easily solved in 2 simple steps: 1) Feed ALL the kids. 2) Tax the rich so they pay their fair share of the program's total cost. Was that hard?

Bruce Mirken 3d ago

@Thad @gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke And of course, the same principle applies to healthcare, child care, etc., etc. Not complicated with 10 seconds of thought.

@BruceMirken @Thad @gbargoud @realtegan @mekkaokereke Seems so logical.

Lukas Grossar 3d ago

@CStamp @BruceMirken @Thad @gbargoud @realtegan @mekkaokereke Yeah, but only if you're a socialist! /s

Bruce Mirken 3d ago

@tongpu @CStamp @Thad @gbargoud @realtegan @mekkaokereke Better that than a capitalist! 😂

@tongpu @BruceMirken @Thad @gbargoud @realtegan @mekkaokereke Or decent human?

cwicseolfor 3d ago

@Thad Headline concision. They ought to update theirs. @gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke

Rupert V/3d ago

@gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke More like making 10,000 people suffer to create one millionaire and blaming it on the 100 "freeloaders".

CassandraVert 3d ago

That's about 1/3 of the country on the far right. It's not everyone. 1/3 on the left would say let's feed all the kids in case one is hungry. And the 1/3 in the middle vascillate.

Pulchra, Impudica, Beata 3d ago

@gbargoud @[email protected] @realtegan @mekkaokereke That's very Finnish thing too.

Jennifer 3d ago

@gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke

Also, we'll spend way more money to check that no one is free loading than it would cost to just let those 4 people who don't strictly *need* it, have it.

Passenger 3d ago

@jennifer @gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke

Also, the best way to make sure that something is widely popular among all classes is to make it available to everyone without means-testing, and one of the best ways to make something into a mark of shame among among poor people and a target of derision among less poor people is to means-test it.

JimmyB (he/him)3d ago

@CStamp @gbargoud @mekkaokereke @jennifer @realtegan

And has been pointed out so many times: the right would rather 100 suffered than let 1 benefit when they are judged unworthy where the left would rather 100 benefited when perhaps they aren’t truly eligible than let 1 suffer. In the UK the return from prosecuting tax fraud is huge: but what do we prioritise?

I’m convinced by the argument that cruelty is the point

@gbargoud @aj @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke I remember hearing stories about Americans who, when donating an old coat to charity, would cut the buttons off first so that the charity recipient who got it didn’t feel too cocky about their new, unearned clothes

The Animal and the Machine 3d ago

@gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke
Harm is primary to racism.

Why help 99 white poor people and one Black person when you can harm the Black person. Racists believe the Black person must not be able to stand. It’s pure irrational fear of a 180 flip and them being enslaved. They mirror how they are onto how others will be.

All other instances, including on all whites, stem from this being set as a mental model of how to operate.

The model isn’t challenged on the poor because it would led to the same question on the colour, and remember, harm to Blacks IS the point. The route of poverty in the US is racism.

It is all, what magicians would call, ‘misdirection’.

As long as the core philosophy is on splitting society and not building the American Dream, you will get questions on freeloading.

Side note. There are no freeloaders to basic human rights.

We the people.

Renalia - #1 pizza downloader 3d ago

@gbargoud @CStamp @realtegan @mekkaokereke but of course, not the freeloaders in charge of everything, no, just the imaginary freeloader they point at who works 2000% harder than a billionaire ever had to.