Gallup: Romney 52% Obama 45%

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

in my opinion, caring for the impoverished is helping them find a job and get onto their feet... not to get on government programs like food stamps, which starts for some a continuous cycle.

food stamps and government aid do not help people get jobs and care.. no matter what Obama said in the stimulus bill.

granted, for those who are disabled, or looking for a job and need short time help for their family, those programs are okay. but in the current state, it is only helping the impoverished stay impoverished.

Yes, that is exactly correct. There is a misnomer out there that liberals care more about poor people than conservatives. I think it is absolute nonsense. They both care about poor people. They just go about helping them in different ways. I'm talking in general. There are obviously a few conservatives out there that care nothing about poor people and there are obviously a few liberals that care nothing about poor people. But in general, I think most people on both sides of the aisle want to help poor people.

In my personal life experience, conservatives are far more generous when it comes to helping others and all the scientific evidence (I've posted links to the studies in the past) backs this up. Conservatives give far more to charity even when you adjust for income. In other words, the average conservative that makes $30,000 a year gives much more to charity than the average liberal that makes $30,000 a year.

I know a ton of conservatives that go down to skidrow and feed the homeless. Many of the people at the churches that I go to, go and feed the homeless almost every week. I don't know too many liberals that do this.

By the way, if you had true socialism the rich would make a lot less money. But the poor would make a lot less money too. So everyone would suffer.

Anyway, my personal opinion is that we all have a responsibility to help those that are less fortunate than ourselves. For those of us that can afford to help financially, I think we should help financially. If you can't help financially, you can help by giving your time and doing some volunteer work. In terms of the government helping people, I think the government should give some help but you don't want them to go overboard because you don't want to encourage people to not work.

I know a girl that was diagnosed with bipolar disorder several years ago. She takes medication but she is fine. She functions as well as most people. She doesn't work and she is on disability. She gets bored sometimes so she volunteers at a hospital once a week and she feeds the homeless once a week. She also does a little bit of babysitting for a friend around once a week (her friend pays her cash under the table). I have asked her if she has thought about getting a full-time job or maybe a part-time job. She says she would like to get a part-time job but she is not going to do it because she will lose her disability payments from the government if she gets a part-time job.

How ridiculous is that? We have a system set up that encourages people not to work. I'm not saying that we need to get rid of the system entirely, but I think we need to make major changes to the system. In the case of my friend who gets disability, nobody is being helped by those disability checks. Those checks are actually hurting her. They are holding her back. She actually wants to work but she's not going to because she doesn't want to lose her disability checks.