Level playing field? Just world?

[feuervogel]

Horsecrap. And there's a study that shows the far greater prevalence of the belief that people get what they deserve, that the poor are poor because they're lazy, that the rich are rich because they're so virtuous and hard-working, that luck doesn't play into it at all, in America than in the rest of the world.

Data from the World Values Survey [Alesina, Glaeser, and Sacerdote 2001; Keely 2002] show that ... Americans are about twice as likely as Europeans to think that the poor “are lazy or lack willpower” (60 percent versus 26 percent) and that “in the long run, hard work usually brings a better life” (59 percent versus 34–43 percent [Ladd and Bowman 1998]).

Dear neo-liberals, neo-cons, libertarians, and anyone else who believes the world we live in is really actually a meritocracy: IT ISN'T. You're deluding yourselves if you think it is.

Comments

Re: Do you know how far I had to scroll back in facebook to find this?

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

What I love is the conception that other people will live comfortably on these "safety nets", enough so that they aren't motivated to find jobs that pay money. That's the part I don't get. Once again, it's people not understanding what's going on in the real world.

Re: Do you know how far I had to scroll back in facebook to find this?

[feuervogel]

People are totally living high on the hog, with their $300/week (before taxes). And the numbers given are max benefits -- probably not what a single person with no dependents would get.

I can't find good data through google on what AFDC pays, because the top pages of hits are all CATO jackholes and "welfare pays better than work, so why work?" But I found a single article on the difficulty AFDC recipients have in supporting themselves.

Note to CATO-types: have you ever considered that welfare benefits (as well as Medicaid) are pulled when you make over a certain VERY LOW threshold, and that making, for example, 9,500 a year to support two children and getting AFDC and food stamps is OK, but making 10,000 a year and getting your aid pulled means your kids go hungry?

Reality is a lot more complicated than the black and white you make it out to be.

ETA: Not that I expect av3rnus is still reading this thread.

Re: Do you know how far I had to scroll back in facebook to find this?

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who makes $350/wk after taxes... yeah. Not going to try to live on less, thanks much. And it's funny that people will say that if your taxes go up at $200k you've no incentive to earn more near there... but taking away benefits at or below the poverty line is all hunky-dory.

Re: Do you know how far I had to scroll back in facebook to find this?

[feuervogel]

That's how you can tell their principles boil down to "fuck the poor people."