No this isn't an attack on those who are n federal assistance, but I can't afford to have kids and pay the bills and the medical. I can barely afford it for myself. I have employees who are in their mid 20's that can't even afford medical or even afford to live on their own. A lot of them talk about getting on welfare and having a couple of kids and getting a medical card for free etc. Some of them do this and don't marry so that the bf can still work and bring home cash. I don't necessarily blame these people though it is a flawed system that eats up my tax $$ and I do not benefit from these services...but what kind of message does this send to our children and future generations? What happened to the ideal that if you worked hard you would succeed? What happened to the land of opportunity?

Good question and answer. I can't comment much, but I do have to say that, if it's anything like in Canada, welfare is given and executed by a string. The terms, qualifications and laws are getting much stricter, and I fear that folks will only wake up when the economy crashes. As you say, hard working folks benefit from next to nothing, and although we have free health care here, it's not of the utmost quality; there's always some kinda price to pay. People are going to revolt, ask for more than what is given, and welfare may eventually be obliterated. Sounds hard to imagine, but it can happen in a short amount of time, and I can only foresee an eventual crash of the economy because of this. Liking it or not, taxes, insurance and their benefits are a great part of the economical wheel, and if people refuse to adhere any longer, the government can't do much about it, not as much as we're led to believe, and will have to start compensating and negotiating; else heads will roll. It's happened before, and will occur again. Society is far from stable and perfect, and while it seems to work one way, if people want us to keep paying taxes and insurance, they have to give some back. At the end the choices become rather thin and narrow. It's like a pendulum, when the economy reaches it's peak, it only crashes and picks itself up again. One gives way to another, there wasn't welfare before, and people not fit to work, or not wanting to, made their points. Eventually someone else has to make their points. Put out a fire with a stick, you'll just start another eventually. The government needs us as much as we need them, something will change, but who knows what this will be, or what it will mean, however I do believe that whatever occurs is always bounded by rather strict social nature. I think people will only wake up once they can't help but to help one another out-if only to elevate themselves back to better times, which is, unfortunately, how I believe both the United States and Canada were founded. :/ Enough welfare folks in the street can cause some problems, but enough hard workers sick of going through their shifts with a terrible tooth ache can do the same, there's always a middle ground to fall back on, though once this occurs, it's hard keeping the balance, it would seem. Humans just don't work like that.

They have their alarm set for 6:00 am. I would say the incentive is pride.

What kind of system permits banks and insurance firms to lose money they don't have in very risky investments and then demand that the taxpayers will cover them? The federal reserve wants the Congress to cover over 700 billion just on Fannie Mae and Mac alone, without any oversight or approval from Congress! This is only going to cause more firms to cave and make the same requests!

It’s because you’re a conservative republican! That’s what we do! Is pride too.

What do you propose?