Originally Posted by
Irving
Anecdotal experiences are pretty powerful and I doubt I could put up an argument that would change minds. Fortunately, that's not what I'm trying to do. My anecdotal experience is that I don't know anyone personally that is actively abusing any system like that. Of course those people exist, but how many are there really? I bet I do actually know people like that, but just don't realize it because they aren't telling me.
People abusing the system is definitely a problem. I'm trying to ask if the story we tell ourselves is bigger than the reality though. There is obviously more to the story. I don't like talking about family at all. The current situation Ginsue's son is in sounds like he should be voting left and collecting checks. But, I can confidently assume he's not. So there must be something else besides "free" stuff that keeps people in that mind set. It just seems lazy to assume the equation is that simple, and being lazy leads to all kinds of other problems. From losing people from your political side, to not being able to convince/teach people to take care of themselves.
I'm getting side tracked. Of course those people exist, just like the loud political extremes exist. But they aren't MOST people, and aren't MOST of the problem.