[quote=@Burning Kitty]Not my problem, tax money should never be used to benefit a single person, only things like infrastructure, military, stuff that benefits everyone. They shouldn't be getting any neetbux in the first place, nothing more than government theft.

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You don't have to let them rot, but if you want to do something it should be done by you personally or by charities.
[/quote]

Now see, the latter part there gets argued a lot, but argued differently. The [i]accurate[/i] argument is, person-to-person and/or charities (the smaller the better) are much more [i]efficient[/i] at distributing I guess the word is neetbux? This is a true statement -- small groups are, by their very nature, more efficient, at just about anything.

However, big groups (like the federal government) are much more [b]effective[/b] at distributing benefits. It might cost them ten bucks to make sure Lucy gets a dollar, but Lucy [i]gets that dollar,[/i] on time, every time. That's the dichotomy. Where's the balance supposed to be, I mean, more on the private side probably than it is right now, but not overly so. And here's why.

Feeding the poor and destitute, creating a society in which the disabled and the elderly and the abject poor are allowed to exist and survive and do shit, [b]is good for everyone.[/b] Nearly every single one of us, eventually, is going to become disabled. Most people, that doesn't happen until you're retired; some people die before they get a chance. But it's coming for you, period, dot. You can either live in perpetual dread of that Logan's Run scenario, or you and your employer can each drop 6.2% of your income into SSI and know that when it finally happens to you -- because it will -- you've paid your dues and you're covered.

Okay, so that's, like, broad-stroking the whole issue. [i]Yeah, the system needs a lot of big-time reforms.[/i] It's gonna go bankrupt before long (partially because your SSI payments get raided for other government programs, including infrastructure and military and the like; partially because we're giving money to too many people), and you shouldn't count on it to take care of you if you've got other options (at a minimum, take your annual SSI contributions, double them, and put that much money into a ROTH IRA, you'll be glad you did). And that's not really addressing the folks who take advantage of the system -- they're a minority but they do a disproportionate amount of damage (just google "social security fraud billion" and look at the money sieve). [b]Yes, some shit needs to hpapen to fix it.[/b] 

My point is, a safety net -- even one you don't need right now -- is a good thing for everybody, within reason. If we have a problem in the US with our safety-net situation, it's because we're not allowed to reasonably look at it or try to fix it, because the people taking advantage get just as many votes as the people trying to fix it.