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Nov
14
Missouri, the new Kansas
November 14, 2006 |
Missouri wingnuts aren’t standing by while Kansas grabs the spotlight over evolution. A bizarre report from a General Assembly immigration committee is making the rounds of national news this week. It blames abortion and welfare for illegal immigration.
According to the wingnuts, abortion is creating a worker shortage and welfare is making the remainder of Americans too lazy to work.
Comments
18 Comments so far
The abortion argument is pretty weak but its hard to disagree with the effects of welfare. As a rental property owner I can attest to the fact that more than half of my white and black tenants are trying to get on one program or another so that they no longer have to work. My Hispanic tenants, on the other hand, are always looking for more opportunity to work.
I knew the good buzz from last week’s election in Missouri was too good to last very long…
Northeast Guy-
Why are hispanics automaticly immigrants? Some people seeking assistance may actually deserve it.
limo, however, our social assistance programs are increasingly being abused by those who dont need it and wont work. They’re making it harder for those who do have legitimate need ofthem and for us taxpayers as well.
I never claimed that our assistance programs are without failings. The source of fraud comes from people of all colors. NE Guy perpetuating racial stereotypes with regards to what comprises an immigrant does not help the situation.
I won’t go into the differance between legal and illegal immigrants. I sure hope that NE Guy doesn’t rent property to the illegal ones. That would make him part of the problem.
limo-
I don’t wish to stereotype anyone. However, with 28 units rented and approximately 30% turnover per year, I’m in a pretty good position to determine who is working to make a better life for themselves and who is out to game the system.
For example, I had a woman renting from me for most of 2005 who was white and in her late thirties. She walked with a cane and complained of a mysterious back ailment and was attempting to obtain some sort of social security related disability payment. Whenever I saw her she complained of near constant pain. However, on two seperate occasions I was in her building late at night attending to building related emergencies and saw her bounding up the stairs two at a time.
I have two more tennants operating the same scam. Both are white females under the age of 50.
In calendar years 2004 and 2005 I had a total of 14 female residents come to me asking that I change their leases to show no male resident living with them as they were seeking food stamps and it would have been all but impossible for them to obtain them with an employed significant other. All 14 were either white or black.
From 2004 through 2006 I have had one Hispanic tennant attempt to defraud the government for financial gain. He also had trouble finding his checkbook on rent day so his time with me was short.
As for what comprises an immigrant I have a pretty simple rule. If you were born here you are not an immigrant. If that doesn’t comply with any of our laws I’m unaware of it. My rule with regard to immigrants is proof of legal residence before the lease is signed. And for what its worth, I’ve only had one immigrant who was not of Hispanic descent. He was East African.
NE Guy-
You provide plenty of anecdotal evidence by which you have based opinions upon the nature of the values of various racial groups. I am unwilling to accept your assesments based on your limited experience. Nonetheless, you need not prove your experience to me. I have no reason to believe that you would lie about these things. I remain hesitant to categorize people by the color of thier skin. But then, I thought the issue was illegal immigrants and “immorallity”. *shrug* What do I know?
Of course we don’t have welfare any more like Emery wants to blame for our problems. Isn’t it convenient how Republicans want to make wild claims about how welfare does this and welfare does that and come election time they want credit for forcing Clinton into signing the law that made welfare too limited for anyone to stay on it. Emery is the kind of fool who thinks that somehow if only all government programs except the ones that force people to live according to his religious beliefs were wiped out that we would return to a paradise like his vision of America in the ’50s. LSD is a weak diluted hallucinogenic compared to radical ideologies of any stripe. Emery’s just happens to be the modern excuse for conservatism.
limo-
I cited data for only two complete years because I switched property management software in December 2003 and data prior to then is archived in another format. I’ve owned rental property in various large midwestern cities for close to 15 years and my experiences have been similar over the long haul.
Actually, my results are far more indicative of gender and location of upbringing. By far the worst offenders I have dealt with have been women raised in rural communities. That particular demographic just happens to be white.
My best Hispanic tenants have been roughly the same as my best white and black tenants when it comes to rent being paid and such. There have just been more good Hispanics over the years than good white or black tenants.
NE Guy-
Again, I do not doubt your experience. Still, at best, it is only anecdotal and not really the subject of this discussion.
yup, anecdotal evidence is merely that. not a fact until statistics play in. it’s not race, but culture, anyway.
if people find it so easy to scam the system, the system is weak, not without merit. some people can’t work, actually. most can, so i do wonder about people i see sitting on their porches day in and day out.
however, the people described above trying to get on disability or get food stamps bring up, if they are “all women,” an interesting case about how partnerships work/don’t work in our culture. rural white women feeling the most need to take it easy? where were they supposed to learn how to function in urban, computer- and customer-service-based jobs? single women are among our nation’s poorest. and as for “hiding” their boyfriends, well, if two people are sharing rent and feel the need to get extra food. . .i don’t know, minimum wage still gets you just $10,000 to spend on life. life, even a frugal one, is costly. especially if you happen to have to go to the doctor.
there is something about our culture, not just the mere presence of welfare assistance, that has taught us to try to get anything we can for free.
Of course, Tracy, statistics allow a scoundrel to claim what he wishes. I’m not attempting to paint a picture here; only to relay my experiences. And you are certainly correct that the real issue is one of culture.
Partnerships in the US are, unfortunately, effected as much by government as by culture. When the government decrees that, in order to qualify for aid, a woman (mother) cannot have a male member of the household present, it in a defacto sense marginalizes men. (Oops, I’m falling into Bill Cosby mode…)
Trying to get something for nothing isn’t cultural, its the nature of our political system. 19th century economist and French politician Frederic Bastiat said it best, “The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”
I should have said that ONE of the real issues is culture.
Statistics, shmatistics…
Most people in society do just fine without assistance. Life is much to complex to paint with such a broad brush and blatent disregard or ignorance of reality demonstrated by MO Representative Henry who seems intent on a conservative political agenda as opposed to a real studied concern for the people he represents.
Lots of people do get along fine without assistance. The system we have and circumstance is making it increasingly difficult, though. When the odds are good that you’ll have to retrain to get a job if you lose your current one and the length of time that training takes is more easily measured in years than weeks then our current system of assistance to help people make a new career for themselves is too limited.
I don’t care if you’re black, white, yellow, brown, or purple. If you’re in this country legally, contributing to this country and need some assistance, go for it. We’ll help (provided we got the funds and supports and whatnot to run such programs).
Jim S,welfare isn’t supposed to be so generous that it encourages people to purposely stay on it. It is meant (in the majority of cases) to be temporary assistance.
Of course, in Missouri, people have just moved from the welfare roles to the disability role. Why should taxpayers foot the bill in those cases where the only disablility is addiction?
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