A Brief History of Hauldren Collider

[Dinner]

I was wrong, Utah history was more interesting...

ACK!

With all those sister-wives how could it not be?

[Egbert]

Actually, obesity is a problem among the poor because of the poor quality of food available to them.

Since you believe so strongly in these cash transfers, it would benefit you to research poverty and how successful giving cash without strings has been successful. Because right now, you seem to just be making stuff up. Is that what we should design policy around? Made up facts?

We should not design policy around "made up facts".

Meanwhile:

Lot's of policy gets designed around made up facts.

[kentonio]

Am I talking about stopping the program?

If the state is giving people financial support because they cannot support themselves, what exactly is the goal of that? Is it fair to say that the pretty basic intention is that they are able to house and feed themselves and their family until they are able to get a new job (ideally)? If so, what is so fundamentally bad about the state paying directly for those things to ensure that the money spent is actually spent on what it was intended for?

There's an argument that says that if you pay for them directly, the recipients don't learn to budget properly and find it harder to get back into proper financial responsibility, however as the learning curve for that would involve them potentially starving or ending up homeless, that seems like a pretty harsh way to go about things. Some people are poorly educated and some are just plain ****ing stupid, that doesn't seem like a good reason to let them starve.

[kentonio]

Uh, you couldn't starve in America if you tried, dufus. Food's so abundant in this country people give it away in sufficient quantities that obesity is a problem among homeless people.

Hmm..

Food Insecurity and Very Low Food Security [iv]

In 2011, 50.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children.
In 2011, 14.9 percent of households (17.9 million households) were food insecure.
In 2011, 5.7 percent of households (6.8 million households) experienced very low food security.
In 2011, households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.6 percent compared to 12.2 percent.
In 2011, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (20.6 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (36.8 percent) or single men (24.9 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (25.1 percent) and Hispanic households (26.2 percent).
In 2011, 4.8 million seniors (over age 60), or 8.4% of all seniors were food insecure.[v]
Food insecurity exists in every county in America, ranging from a low of 2.4 percent in Slope County, ND to a high of 35.2 percent in Holmes County, MS.

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-...tatistics.aspx

[MikeH]

I'm not discussing what is politically feasible. My viewpoint isn't going to change just because there are a lot of idiots who will never agree to blindingly obvious good policy. If we took all the subsidies we give people--food stamps, medicaid, various other benefits and just piled them all into "welfare" we could make the economy vastly more efficient and we would probably end up spending less.

They recently changed things here to stop paying housing benefit direct to landlords, and instead gave it to the tenants.

The result has been an increase in the number of tenants going into rent arrears, mostly to local councils providing social housing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21756567

Figures obtained by BBC News show that arrears among tenants of Wakefield and District Housing in West Yorkshire have increased from an average of 2% to 11% on the pilot projects.

Chief executive Kevin Dodd said he hoped the level of arrears would fall as they made efforts to help tenants better manage their money.

But even taking that into account, he told the BBC: "If you roll that out to 31,000 tenancies we will be increasing our bad debt provision by a further £2-3m a year."

Bron Afon community housing in south Wales said it had seen a 50% increase in arrears, while pilot projects in Edinburgh, Oxford and Southwark are showing around 30% increases in arrears.

Southwark Council predicts it will incur £14m in arrears if direct payment is introduced to all their tenants.

"People have clocked up arrears who were not in arrears before," says Duncan Forbes, chief executive of Bron Afon.

"And the worry is will they panic, will they stop paying, will they feel they've lost control and end up being evicted.".

[MikeH]

I absolutely agree with the concept of simplifying the benefits, but I think in reality it often gets a bit more complicated than simplistic principles.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hmm..



http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-...tatistics.aspx

People should also watch the fantastic documentary "A Place at the Table" for a more in depth look at food insecurity. Bonus: Jeff Bridges (aka, "The Dude") is in it and the music is by The Civil Wars.

[Dauphin]

Nope. Decriminalize.

People sell their foods stamps at a fraction of their value for cash, to get what they want or need.

Fraud will exist whether it's stamps or cash.

[Tuberski]

With all those sister-wives how could it not be?

They pretty much avoided the polygamy issue, it was maybe 2 days and had to do with becoming a state more than anything.

ACK!