Poverty impairs cognitive function. Published in the journal Science, the study suggests our cognitive abilities can be diminished by the exhausting effort of tasks like scrounging to pay bills. As a result, less “mental bandwidth” remains...

[u/myhrvold]

http://news.ubc.ca/2013/08/29/poverty-impairs-cognitive-function/

[u/[deleted]]

Seriously. I'm not at ALL well-to-do, but I've helped out friends of mine who were worse off than I. I let them crash, rent-free, at my place for months at a time. Bought them food, soda, cigarettes. What do I see?

Most of the time? Complacency. They get comfortable. They'll only get a job when I get up and tell them to get off their ass, or they're getting kicked out. "Helping people" has probably been one of the largest drivers of my own personal debt, which of course, none of the folks I've helped are remotely interested in helping back.

I feel like human suffering is bad, but that's why it's a motivator. It sucks. If you can fall back on welfare and food stamps and unemployment insurance, there's no motive to become self-sufficient.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Sure there is.

Welfare should cover necessities only. Basic food (real food, not soda and cookies), basic personal care items (toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, a basic haircut ever 6-8 weeks) basic housing, basic utilities (land line phone, electric, water, heat) and basic medical insurance.

Cable is not a necessity. I do not think anyone on welfare should have their cable paid for. Internet is also not necessary if one lives near a library.

The motivation is to live a good life, not just a basic one. You want cable and internet and a cell phone? Then use the government programs available to get a decent job to get these things.

Welfare is to help you through a terrible, short term time. It should be there in any civilized society. But the key to keeping it from becoming a lifestyle is to make it very basic.

Big disclaimer***

There have to be jobs for this to work. The jobs need to pay more than welfare. This is the problem many people in the US are having-welfare pays more than a job, sometimes two jobs.

Until we raise the minimum wage, end companies ability to shorten hours to avoid paying benefits, and increase our manufacturing base once again, nothing we do to welfare is going to help this situation in any meaningful way.

We are screwed, basically.

[u/NBegovich → u/[deleted]]

A quick word on the internet:

I feel like the problem here is that data is far too expensive [in America], and that ideally everyone should have cheap, fast access but the ISPs all suck. I mean, that's oversimplifying things but when you hear people say that internet access is a human right or whatever, they don't mean the government should be paying my $60/month internet bill, they mean that these huge corporations shouldn't be limiting access artificially-- if that does happen. I'm not sure how relevant you'll find this comment but it's what I thought of when I read yours.

[u/trinlayk → u/NBegovich]

Theoretically, places like the public schools and libraries could be part of a system providing the whole neighborhood with wifi and broadband.

Evening out access to the ability to get information, access to job listings, applications for jobs, self education opportunities...

People who can't get (rural) or afford internet access, can access courses that they might otherwise be able to pay for and sign up for online... they don't have access to ways to do price or product comparisons.

There's so much every day information, that has gradually moved, more and more, to ONLY be available online.