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points by nxm 1 day ago | 0 comments

People don’t want to work anymore, but they keep expecting more from their already debt loaded governments - the free ride has to end at some point.

[–] LoFiSamurai 1 day ago

You actually believe that most people are getting a “free ride”? You’re reducing this to simple laziness?

[–] SpicyLemonZest 1 day ago

I don't think that very many people are getting a free ride. I'm sure it happens but it's not common.

I do think there are a lot of people, like the OP, who think people should be. They view the structure of modern society and the lack of free rides as something that "boomer, petite-bourgeoise types" have imposed on us, rather than a reflection of underlying realities.

[–] cattenwallen 1 day ago

I think there should be free rides for a lot of circumstances tbh. Like, I want children to be clothed, housed, fed, educated, and exposed to minimal trauma or workplace/economy pressure. I want anyone too disabled to work to also be clothed, housed, fed, educated to the degree possible depending on their disability... I want single moms to not worry about that stuff either... I want 70+ y/o folks to not feel pressured to be in the workforce so they can leave leadership opportunities to younger folks... None of this has to do with some characterization of people that are against those things I just think we disagree

[–] ndriscoll 1 day ago

> I want single moms to not worry about that stuff either

Uh, that's like 20% of households with children, or 25% of children (plus another 5% are raised by some other guardian, so likely also a welfare situation). That's again where we're getting into unrealistic territory (not to mention the terrible incentive). Across all of your groups, you're basically saying half the population should be taken care of by the other half.

A more pressing issue is why are a quarter of children raised by single parents? Even if they were completely taken care of economically, that's still a disaster.

[–] SpicyLemonZest 1 day ago

Against what things? The US government spends over 2 trillion dollars each year providing resources to elderly and disabled people through the Social Security and Medicare programs. I don't think "free ride" is exactly the right way to phrase this - we live in a society, we're obligated to take care of those who can't take care of themselves - but basically nobody in the modern US argues that old people should starve if their nest egg isn't big enough. The debates are about precisely how generous the funding should be and what tradeoffs we should make to obtain additional funding that may be required.

[–] bigbadfeline 1 day ago

"Free ride" is what big biz and especially big AI are getting, the government reduces their taxes, pays for the bailouts and gets saddled with the debt which is then passed to... those who elect it.

[–] OKRainbowKid 1 day ago

I agree – the freeloaders being the billionaire class.

[–] i_love_retros 1 day ago

Actually they just expect people with over a billion dollars to pay a lot more tax. And seeing as those people built so much wealth by raping society and exploiting people and through corruption I'd say it's the least that should happen to them.

[–] greenhat76 1 day ago

The debt the US has is not due to hand outs, but whatever you say.

[–] well_ackshually 1 day ago

We produce more than anyone could want. We don't have a debt problem, we have a capital and resource allocations problem. Capitalists jerk themselves off with "capitalism dragged billions out of poverty", but when suddenly the idea of using that capital to provide everyone with basic necessities, you shit yourselves.