let's make a deal over your dead body

As Obama and the GOP prepare to deal away any semblance of responsibility, it would be good to rremember the movie "It's a Wonderful Life"? Jimmy Stewart's small town S&L gets taken for some money and he suddenly is insolvent.  There is a run on the bank and he is in despair; ready to end it all. His miracle (improbably but a nice story) is a guardian angel and a local society of his friends who come to his rescue.

So now we have another Christmas story to savor.  A couple million people will loose the last of their benefits in the next couple weeks.  Some pundits and some in Congress think this is a good thing - kinda the "hang 'em it will teach them a lesson" type of thinking while, remarkably, more than a few have noted that benefits keep people from looking for a job and "they save it anyway - just tuck it away".



The average payment is about $300/week.   So what happens when these folks are out of money.  if you think paying $300 is a huge expense (and remember that might be for an entire family..so let's say mom and dad and the 1.8 kids).  They can't pay anything to anyone because now there is no money for anything including food and a roof. Heat is long gone. What does it cost society now?

Well, the best figures are that once the State takes in someone, our real family of 4, and becomes responsible for their support, the per person is somewhere between $14,000 and $24,000/person/year. or instead of $1200 a month in unemployment the republican party - the party of austerity - obviously the party of Scrooge - would rather spend $4,00-7000/mo.

Hey, you either get the vaccine or you get polio.  Let me think. I'm a republican. I'll take polio.