Stipend as Welfare

I definitely see disability and welfare as two separate things. I wasn't making a judgment about welfare recipients either. If anything a bit sleepy and was trying to say in a brief way that people do not have to work for welfare, if they are alive, they (imo) have a right to food and shelter, and are sent a small amount to try to help there. But, it is not a paycheck.

Why did I mention it at all? I was thinking of someone's post saying that camping is welfare, but to me it isn't like that either because they are performing a 'job' even if very badly paid.

Welfare in real life has undergone changes over the years/decades. Mom has told me that in her childhood people came to the house and if anyone had anything at all like a luxury, even a television, they might not get their check. Standing in line every week has to be a drag in itself. I think now there are programs to help people with job training but the system's still far from ideal. And all of this is getting off topic, but just to assure you, I never even was thinking about disablity assistance. I also know from someone who was retired and had to go on it and sue to get it that it is not easy to qualify for.

Again was just making the distinction between welfare check, and paycheck.

(Thank you for accepting my apology btw.)

Second Life is a socialist paradise. From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs, you say? Well, all the needs of avatars in SL are provided, free of charge, by Linden labs. Food, health care, the whole thing is built in, handled behind the scenes... avatars only suffer from hunger or disease or exposure to wind and weather if they choose to.

Everything you buy with L$ is a luxury.

One of the biggest "welfare" programs in the US is the EIC. Sure there are income requirements, but when I was preparing taxes I would always have a large number of people come in who "worked" for themselves and always made within a couple dollars of the sweet spot where they will get the biggest payment from the government. They never had books or expesnses, but they knew how much would get them the payout.

I ran into that one too. I worked with a woman who was a single mother. We had just worked some overtime hours and when we were at break and she was looking over her recent paycheck she actually said, "Noooooo!!!! This is going to put me over the amount to receive EIC. I have to do something."

Not knowing what EIC was at the time (Earned Income Credit, and as I understand it necessitates having a child/children to qualify), I was perplexed as to why she considered having more income in the form of overtime a "bad" thing.

"Child trading" happens quite often as well. You can only claim two for the credit, so any extra get farmed out to aunts, cousins, anyone else who wants a big check.

My niece got into big time trouble doing that, she used one of my nephew's kids and IRS caught up with her and she ended up with having to pay back over 8K. Having family that worked for IRS, I tried to tell her but she didn't listen.

Ironically, years later she is now working for HR Block.

Wow I mention welfare and all sl gets on my case.

And meanwhile people like me with two disabled kids get refused state health care because I "make" too much money. Even though I paid into said system for years and every other disabled person in the state is qualified to receive it. Yes I do get a decent amount of money to live comfortably on, but try paying out of pocket for therapy appointments,pedi devs appt etc... You should have seen how much I had to pay for early intervention for my youngest. I think it's bullshit that I can't get any help for my disabled kids from a system that I paid into for years but Jenny crack ho can keep pushing out those babies and work 30 days out of the year and get a huge check come tax time. Pffft. No,Im not bitter at all.

my hair is 400l and animations..mhm no limit really lol
stipedn is nice anyway, like a xmas present!

This is what happens when government gets involved in anything. When they take over health care, it will all get better - I promise.

See, this is why i have decided to turn my children into physicians. My son wanted to be an ice cream make and have his own ice cream store, and my daughter wants to make fancy cakes and such. But now i need to use my children as an insurance policy against all the new spending. Not only do they have to be physicians now so they can take care of us and keep us off the government rationed health care system, they will have to pay back 10 trillion dollars in debt along with the rest of their generation.

The life of my kids just got harder.

I'm running out right now to buy their pre-med books to have them ready in 5 years. Doogie Howser won't have anything on my kids!

Maybe before they get the chance to go to college they will get drafted into some community organization civil defense force - i forgot that the federal government thinks it needs more people on the Uncle Sam nipple.

It happens quite often and was at the root of the "poor" people are getting audited more than rich people hysteria a couple years ago. But to a lot of these people it is just a gamble. The funniest thing I ever heard was from a white guy who was getting a big EIC refund, "I can finally pay off my mouth bling." Big screen TV's are another hot ticket around that time.

Eewwwww.... mouth bling is ABSOLUTELY the worse bling

Why shouldn't we? When you start a thread talking about something that is not welfare, and very clearly choose to word things as if it is, you're going to be called on the carpet for it. When you're wrong you should be told you're wrong.

You know, the movie "Idiocracy" was right. I can remember some young couples come in, both having decent jobs, nothing to make them rich but decent jobs, no kids and the government would rape them for taxes.

Then the couple would come in with 12 W-2s, 4 of those from employment temp agencies, there would be 5 different addresses on the W-2w they would have 5 1/2 kids and the freakin government would hand them a check for $4K. Would piss me off to no end. One of the main reasons I quit that job.

Stipend pays for my excess tier rental, making it economic for me to have an extra 1000 or so square metres. Between stipend, land sales, and a tricky of sales, I haven't had to bring money into SL for a couple of years - including subscriptions.

not everyone has got on your case... but I don't think anyone agrees that it's "welfare"

(and I find the discussion of real life taxes amusing... the rich rape the taxes system far worse than the poor, but it's oh no, the poor are cheating.... it's simple, if you set up a system, everyone will try to push their best advantage, some legally, others not... and you don't you're dumb git)

The stats prove you wrong, but don't let that keep you from posting. But I have a simple solution, we end all taxation and fund the government solely with user fees. That way if you use a program or service you pay for it.

Mine is paid to the classified ad I have, so I never actually see it.

I think the rich try to rape the system because they keep getting more and more screwed by the system:

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html

now imagine if noone tried to beat the system (or it was unbeatable).... tax rates would fall through the floor, because the same amount of funds would be raised at a fraction of the current rate.... for everyone... the real question is how to get there from where we are... I don't see a way (but simplifying the whole damn structure would go a long way towards the goal)

Yeah, but simplicity and government do not seem able to coexist.

I dunno...most of our elected officials seem simple to me.

I knew I shouldn't have read the forums before going to bed. Now I'm going to have nightmares!!

Rioko is spot on. Where the government pulls their numbers out of the air for who gets what and why is beyond me.

the 30%+ that doesn't vote could help with that... then again they might just make it worse...