Shmoe I respectfully disagree with some of your points.
1. Fast food workers deserve a liging wage. Agreed all they do is serve shitty food to people stupid enough to eat it, but we can't do a "Bloomberg" and tell people what they can't eat. Besides these fast food chains are making a fortune in profits, and to pay their workers a living wage like maybe 10 or 11 dollars an hour isn't going to hurt them. And if the price of a Big Mac goes up a nickle, big deal. Personaly I never eat that crap anyway, but I believe in Henry Ford's concept that he wanted to build a car his employees could afford. That was the Model T and thats one of the great ideas that got this country where it is.
2. The Social Security thing is blown way out of proportion. There is enough money in it until something like 2040 and by then there will be a fix. By then the boomers will be mostly dead, and the retirement age will be 75 or higher. I am 66 and get 2300 a month. Think I can live on that? Hell no. I have to work into my 70's.
3. "Sense of Entitlement." I think this is overblown as well. Most people don't feel "enetiled" to anything. Personally I believe everyone in a society as righ as this is "entitled" to food, shelter and health care..even if it is minimal. It is just a matter of decency. I know there are many people always looking for a "free lunch," and in my profession I constantly hear people griing about how someone or other violated "my rights." I always get a kick out of asking them what they think their "rights" are, and once they are done with some crazy talk, I tell them they have the right to free speech, to free religion, to freely assemble, rtc...basically whats in the Bill of Rights, and nothing more, and then I send them on their way.
You make some good points DT, some of which aren't bad ideas. I will counter with some thoughts of my own.
Firstly, with your reasoning I'm not opposed to raising of the minimum wage, in fact I think it should be raised. However employees at fast food restaurants shouldn't earn too much. If that were to happen it would be the same situation that we have with welfare, people can live off it better rather than trying to climb the ladder. I think a good compromise would be for to raise wages, but still have it be a shitty enough pay so that it motivates the people working those jobs to strive for more.
Secondly I didn't realize you were that old DT
but in all seriousness you're only year off the average retirement age of 67. In fact the first year your generation starts is 1946. People born that year JUST turned 67. Maybe for now there's enough money but I guarantee you with the advances in modern medicine people are going to be living longer than they are now. Look at the ones before you aka the Greatest Generation. They're old as hell but plenty are still alive. In fact about 1.5 million WW2 vets are still kicking. That's about one eighth of those who served. Think about that. I'm willing to wager you Boomers will live longer.
The problem is my generation and the Xers. There's not enough of us to support you. Not to mention the debt we're going to have climb out of is enormous. The way I see it we have two options: either raise the retirement age or scale back benefits. It's quite conceivable we might have to do both, despite the fact I'm not crazy about the idea. I am a person in favor of restructuring social programs not getting rid of them. I hope you know that DT.
Thirdly I agree basic things like food, water, shelter, and health care should be accessible. To be given out entirely is another matter. It is a matter of decency, but I would not just hand people less fortunate a house and government checks. Otherwise where's the drive to work or do better? In Detroit when they announced they had 30,000 available housing units "first come first serve" the public housing department was fuckin mobbed by three times that number of people. That's a problem.
Detroit I would personally burn to the ground and rebuild from scratch that city is so bad. They're bankrupt, the auto industry can't support half as many workers as they used to, and drugs, murder and crime flood the streets. But that's another matter.
I'm glad to here you acknowledge there are people who are looking for that "free lunch". Those are the people we need to look out for. Economically I tend to lean conservative, but I also consider myself a pragmatist. Whatever's needed and whatever can solve our nation's problems I'm open to. Problem is those lunatics in Congress can never seem to agree on that
I'm still relieved I can actually have a conversation with someone who might think differently on the political spectrum unlike our dear friend from "cookcounty"
