From: boron_elgar@hotmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 1 Dec 2021 15:45:33 -0000 (UTC), Howard    
   wrote:   
      
   >Boron Elgar  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 15:10:39 -0000 (UTC), Howard    
   >   
   >>>Complicated voucher programs with means testing and verification and   
   >all   
   >>>of that overhead don't fix problems and only keep people from things   
   >>>like health care, education and housing. They make the programs so   
   >>>expensive that people want to shut them down because of the overhead   
   >>>costs per recipient. It's like opening every bag of Doritos in a store   
   >>>to find the broken chips, breaking more chips in the process, and then   
   >>>banning Doritos from a store because all of the bags are open.   
   >>   
   >> Huzzah!   
   >   
   >Reporting on these issues drives me crazy because there is so much   
   >ridiculous framing that goes on which includes certain things and   
   >excludes others.   
   >   
   >Elon Musk benefits from huge tax breaks and billions in direct   
   >government subsidies for Tesla, and he openly smokes pot on the air.   
   >   
   >I'm fine with both things. But the moral panic over a portion of lower   
   >income beneficiaries using drugs is fanned to a red hot level by   
   >propogandists.   
   >   
   >Any gerontologist can talk at length about legal and illegal pain med   
   >abuse -- but the issue doesn't come up with regard to Social Security   
   >and Medicare, only Medicaid. And the point is not that Social Security   
   >and Medicare should force seniors to jump through hoops to prove they   
   >aren't overusing illegally purchased Oxycontin long after their hip   
   >replacement surgery is over. It's that there is crazy panic over the   
   >possibility that someone who gets housing aid might not be perfectly   
   >straight and narrow.   
   >   
   >The reality is Frito-Lay is vastly more rational in the way it deals   
   >with broken Doritos than right wing politicians and the press are about   
   >misuse of benefits.   
   >   
   >Frito Lay monitors returns and looks for trends, but doesn't freak out   
   >about baseline levels. They think hard about everything from top to   
   >bottom, from manufacturing and packing machinery, the effect of   
   >packaging, the design of pallets and they ways they stack and get   
   >loaded, delivery truck design, communications with retailers, shelving   
   >design, and more. Mississippi just blames poor people.   
      
   F-L uses data. Data of all sorts is available to the GOP, too, about   
   all social programs and govt activities, but they to tend deliberately   
   ignore it.   
      
   Want depressing news- Did you hear SCOTUS this morning?   
      
   I have seen numbers from drug testing of "welfare" recipients and as I   
   recall, recipients are a cleaner group than the broader gen pop.   
      
   I am no longer surprised by the idiocy and lies that float around   
   about those at or below the poverty line or the working poor.  We are   
   a gullible lot.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)