"Society" foots the bill to take care of all of us. There is nothing around you that wasn't payed for by someone else. At what point are the general rights afforded to you, restricted to others? By placing assorted "worths" on individuals base upon your perceived values to society, you allow yourself to be, at some point, judged as well. You are in constant use of public facilities and funds. Should you be judged, as to earn them, by someone else's metric?
Punishing the child of a young mother because the bill to raise it is "footed by society" is sick. It is inhumane and completely illogical. If you wish to tax the earnings of the parents, or of the entire families to recompense the "expenditure" required to raise that child as demonstrated from public funds.... that's one thing. (not that I back another tax, but putting the kid back in utero isn't an option)
But to simply look at that person as a "societal burden" simply because the mother was 16 and made a poor decision as judged by you..... very narrow minded.
And we are no different from animals. We live and die by the exact same principles governing the natural world. Procreate, and pass on genes. There is no other principle that each individual of a species is more driven by, instinctively.
Sorry, cannot agree.
When I was back in Hawaii, I worked 5 days a week pushing a broom, driving an old 1999 station wagon, paying for my own food, not eating out because the money isn't there, and generally living just above the poverty line. While I was working and earning my keep, the girls at my school who were at the same income level as my family were spending their time getting knocked up, and taking my tax money to live sometimes more comfortably than I do, while giving nothing back to society.
Yes, EVERYTHING around us was paid for by tax money. But here's the catch, most of us pay back into that system. Folks like you and I give back to society as a whole, be it through tax money, or public service. The majority of these welfare-fed teenage pregnancies however, never end up giving anything back to our society as a whole and just leach of of the public coffer. In my oppinion, if you conceive a child at a certain income level, you should receive ZERO welfare unless something outside of your control occurs to remove some of that income.
And before anyone starts with accusations of elitism, let me remind you, I lived barely above the poverty line. My family collected unemployment for a time, after the business my mother worked for for 20 years closed unexpectedly. We weren't trying to get a cheap ride, my mother spent every day trying to find a permanent job, and taking small gigs here and there in the mean time. And when that happened, we cut our spending, cut our expenses, I got a job, and no more kids popped up. We recognized that we could not afford to live at a certain standard, and by being responsible, we made it through with money to spare, and now I'm going to college and living comfortably, and she is making more money than ever before due to her own dedication and skill, not leaching off of the government as she could have done.
Oh, and I have to agree about jailing those who employ illegals. Remove the incentive to harbor them.
