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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dumbmoney who wrote (148220)	10/19/2004 5:13:40 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

If it pays better not to be poor, there is no problem. In any case, even a spike in the poverty rate of the elderly would be less of a strain on the budget than the current system, which will eventually go broke anyway. We make a big mistake by promoting Grand Solutions to problems which would be better solved by targeting resources........

To: dumbmoney who wrote (148220)	10/19/2004 5:30:46 PM
From: jttmab	Respond to of 281500

That's the least of it; you have to consider the social costs, which may be considerable. (If it pays to be poor, expect more poverty). I'm not sure how to predict social costs. I recall that Israel is one of the more socialist democratic countries around with somewhere around 30% of the population receiving some form of direct benefit from the government. [I'm pretty sure they'll be some people on the thread that will google for that.] Though I don't read about any widespread poverty in Israel. Depending on the specific definition of means testing, I would expect some people to make adjustments to their finances to take advantage of the rules. It's tough to stop people who want to game the system. Sometimes you live with it. There's a lot of theft [shoplifting and employee theft] in the private sector. We don't abolish capitalism because of it, we live with it. Means Testing. How do you do it? There's very little discussion other than income. Based on what? The 1040 that was last submitted, that is obsolete by the time you've filed. How does the system accomodate sudden financial changes? Suppose a person is means tested out of the system and then on 5 Jan suffers some catastrophic event, and now has no income, monstrous bills. [legal or medical] Does the person have to wait until the end of the tax year to qualify? Is it retroactive? Has the person gone desititute and homeless by the end of the year. Maybe the answer is tough nuggies. jttmab