General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Do you believe that everyone deserves food and housing, regardless of ability to work? [View all]daredtowork
(3,732 posts)Ah but you need devices to use that and they cost money.
But wait, you say...Obamaphones!
Well...if you keep a landline you can't have an Obamaphone. And even with an Obamaphone your data access is extremely limited. A couple map searches would probably use it up. The Obamaphone makes people want to be in a position to afford a better phone.
But wait, you say, don't local programs provide "free computers for po' kids?"
Well I've volunteered at working to build these computers before. Their capabilities are extremely limited. They have low memory, cheap graphics cards, slow CPU. These computers will help kids learn to use computers and give them basic Internet access if there is "free wifi" - but what they will mainly do is whet their taste for a better computer. Which they will only be able to get if the work for it.
By the way that terrible XBox Grandma got them for Christmas kind of does the same thing. If they want more games than the system came with - if they want to keep up with the kids at school - they will have to get an after-school job. I polished silver for my guidance counselor so I could get my first pair of Levis (what all the kids wore), when I could have just worn hand-me-down slacks instead.
The GOP fundamentally fail to understand how human motivation works. Providing basic food and shelter will not undermine the motivation to work - it will in fact increase the motivation to work by putting people in a position to accumulate a material identity. Dumping people out on the street, however, puts them in a position where they can't work - and calling them lazy after the fact is just mean-spirited and dumb.