The thing is, there really is barely "welfare" any more. There's TANF, which is a benefit for children - you have to have children under 18 to qualify, and in my state you can receive it as 18 months in a row, 4 years maximum over a lifetime. I looked up the numbers once, and in my high-poverty city of 100,000 there are like 1200 people who get it, and the benefits are incredibly low.

I can't find just Athens right now, but of the 9,829,211 people who live in GA about 38,000 of them get TANF. 00.38%.

Which is even worse, really--penalizing the children because the parent might take drugs?

Also, in GA in 2009, the maximum monthly TANF benefit was $280. Live on that, eh? Even with food stamps (EBT) and subsidized housing. It hasn't been raised since 1998. Nobody is on welfare for fun.

Speaking of used cars, my mom, after years of talking about it and test driving cars (she makes a hobby of it) FINALLY bought a new car today, an 09 CRV with 16K miles for around $20K. Sticker shock to me, but she's done her research and knew what she wanted.

To my great amusement, she queried my brother and I (him, I understand. Me, nsm) on the candidates. My brother said they were all a good bet, but ranked them for her. Of course, she went with his lowest rank. Which is what his wife did too. But then, my mom and SIL have other criteria, thinks like handling and visibility. Whereas my brother looks more mechanically, engine overkill, can he work on it....

Told mom she and SIL were going to give him a complex. His advice IS spot on, purely in $$ and mechanics. But other things matter too, such as not finding comfort/design things that make you hate the car. He'd drive a tank if it was cheap and easy to fix. Hell, he doesn't have working ac in any of his cars. And they are LOUD AS SHIT.

I was just listening to a Fresh Air where they were talking about a group that was against ALL TAXES. People are craxy-- like, are they against roads, and garbage pickup?

People are craxy-- like, are they against roads, and garbage pickup?

Nah, they are just against paying for them. See also: teachers, police, fire dept, medicine

If you'll value it, you'll pay for it, to the degree that you value it. And private fire-protection brigades were put out of business because some of them would hold the owner of a burning house up for more money at the scene.

History, people, it's worth reading.

People are craxy-- like, are they against roads, and garbage pickup?

I guess when the potholes get big enough they'll have a place to dump their garbage.

The attitude I for the drug testing is that (at least from what I can see) people are using my money to live off of and I don't want anyone using my hard earned money, especially lazy drug addicts. And all welfare recipients are lazy drug addicts.

There's also this idea going around that only people who pay income tax are actually paying taxes. Or rather it's people whinging "you know how many people don't pay any taxes AT ALL!!!" and then they trot out some statistic about federal income tax and EIC and stuff and completely miss all the other taxes that people pay.

Hey, what's edging? Is it different from orgasm denial?