|
You want/need welfare? No problemo. Just surrender your right to vote.
This is an idea I (gorb) am toying with to try to get Americas capitalists and socialists to coexist and work together for the greater good. Seems like here is a good place to have it critiqued. Who knows, maybe it is decent and will get some attention.In a nutshell: We can suspend the right to vote for the folks who are taking any kind of welfare, or are taking out more than they are putting in before retirement, or something in between. This would need to be set up so that people can't jump into and out of the welfare system on a whim just so they can vote or take advantage of cycles. We can make it so that someone would have to formally suspend their right to vote before accepting any form of welfare. We'd have to make it so someone couldn't manipulate the system so they can strip away people's right to vote. It's been said that our system would collapse as soon as people figured out a way to vote themselves money. Suspending their right to vote would prevent that problem. We are now at the brink of this situation, since half of American citizens don't pay taxes. I also believe some of the founding fathers toyed with the idea that only the folks who were paying taxes (landowners) should have the right to vote. I believe this might carry this idea forward enough, by using the welfare system as a test, so that it may be workable. I would just worry about the government being used as a tool to try to force everyone they didn't like onto welfare or somehow stripping their right to vote via some loophole. The folks who would opt into this welfare system would have to accept a government job suited to their needs and abilities in order to receive their welfare if they are able-bodied and not raising a child or taking care of a sick relative or something. If someone is found guilty of fraud, they might lose both their welfare and the right to vote permanently depending on the situation and if children are involved. The government could lease them at a reduced rate to do "The Jobs That Americans Don't Want To Do". They could also opt to receive training in other fields so they could rejoin the market/capitalist system into a median-pay job should they so choose. This would provide balance and an escape hatch for those who decided that they didn't like the system after all. Maybe those who are in this parallel "social" system should have some rights to avoid abuse, since they could easily be construed to be something like a slave class. This track should not be punishment, just an option for those who are of this way of thinking. In fact, I believe Israel's system is sort of this way, except they don't strip their right to vote. You want welfare there? Fine, but if you are able-bodied you had better accept the job they offer if you want to keep it. Maybe this would be sufficient, but welfare would have to be a situation to be avoided if it were to have a chance to work. Now I'm going to hide in that bunker over there and let everyone out the in the Burg remind me about what I forgot . . . . :-) Posted by: gorb 2010-07-14 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=301015 |