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You mean test people most likely to vote republican? Don't hold your breath Dana.
What people are failing to see here is that it's nobody's business what someone does with their welfare money. If, according to law, they qualify for welfare, then they can choose to waste it on drugs. There won't be anymore funds forthcoming. Which means, they are choosing starvation (or whatever else) in favor of their addictions.
This governmental privacy invasion gets a free pass only because people are emotional over drug use and the governor is playing on people's biases. It's one thing for a private company to test you in order to be their employee (something I also don't agree with, btw), but it's quite another for it to be done in a mandatory fashion under the public domain.
I'm sorry, but the slippery slope does apply here. We give the government a pass to do this, and it's further expansion of unnecessary power. And for the reasons mentioned earlier, it will only end up increasing the tax burden as prisons fill up with desperate people who fall through the social safety net.
Florida is choosing to reinforce poverty, along with crime and punishment. This is all because many conservatives hate welfare recipients as it is, on top of hating the idea of "wasting my tax dollars on drugs". Well, have fun wasting your tax dollars on their room and board in the prison system. It will be far more than if you just minded your own business!
^ You make a good argument that I cannot refute. Kudos.
Surely though you can see how there is potential for what I mentioned to happen? I agree that when it comes to children we need to know the money has a designated purpose, but what about single individuals? There are lots of those on welfare too, and yes some of them are drug addicts. Do we remove their aid and let them completely slip through the cracks, especially when there is no government subsidized rehab in most localities?
People quickly forget what ADDICTION means. It means you CANNOT STOP.
What people are failing to see here is that it's nobody's business what someone does with their welfare money. If, according to law, they qualify for welfare, then they can choose to waste it on drugs. There won't be anymore funds forthcoming. Which means, they are choosing starvation (or whatever else) in favor of their addictions.
This governmental privacy invasion gets a free pass only because people are emotional over drug use and the governor is playing on people's biases. It's one thing for a private company to test you in order to be their employee (something I also don't agree with, btw), but it's quite another for it to be done in a mandatory fashion under the public domain.
I'm sorry, but the slippery slope does apply here. We give the government a pass to do this, and it's further expansion of unnecessary power. And for the reasons mentioned earlier, it will only end up increasing the tax burden as prisons fill up with desperate people who fall through the social safety net.
Florida is choosing to reinforce poverty, along with crime and punishment. This is all because many conservatives hate welfare recipients as it is, on top of hating the idea of "wasting my tax dollars on drugs". Well, have fun wasting your tax dollars on their room and board in the prison system. It will be far more than if you just minded your own business!
I don't have a problem with drug-testing welfare recipients... so long as every person in the state who also receives taxpayer money is also drug tested. Do it across the board, or don't do it at all. It would be economic discrimination.
That said, the International Commission on The Global War On Drugs has finally issued the report that should have been issued decades ago. The commission admits that we have lost the war, and that the war itself has enabled global crime cartels to multiply and prosper. The commission also suggests most drugs be made legal and regulated, citing that as the most effective way to cause most criminal drug enterprises to immediately implode. These are not novices on the international stage, either. They are well-respected global players who have served in the IMF, world banks, the highest financial and economic posts around the world.
Legalize drugs, regulate them, problem solved. I've said that for over a decade. Now folks high enough to be taken seriously are saying the same thing. Good for them.
If I could pick and choose where the money is spent (as far as my tax dollars) I would have no problem. Since we don't I say test the welfare recipients. If they want free money, no problem. So go Rick! I luv Florida.
Yes people don't want drug users taking our tax dollars and buying drugs. Damn right it is emotional, so what? So is health care and gay marriage. What the heck do you think politicians do?
OK this is just a little to over the top for me. Drug testing just like we do in the military? All government jobs and any job worth having etc? Not to mention all the drug testing in the private sector! Welcome to 2011.
This has nothing to do with conservatives hating welfare recipients. Man stop parroting Democratic talking points. This is good that the Governor is actually doing something we elected him for.
I would be happy to get another drug user off the streets and gladly pay for the rehabilitation etc he will get in prison.
Evolution is the adaptation of species to their environment over several generations. You are referring to natural selection, which even in this case is poorly argued since your program would do little to decrease the reproductive capabilities of drug abusers. At best, you are arguing a Social Darwinist view that only those of merit should survive.
People make poor choices. People can also recover from poor choices given the right opportunities.
To realize this is to be kind.
Kindness is the act of helping people help themselves.
Kindness is also a trait that takes a lifetime to develop and not one you seemed to have valued.
Humans are social animals and we are inherently empathetic. We evolved to want to help our fellow tribe members survive and prosper so that we could look out for one another.
A cohesive tribe is a tribe that survives and a divided tribe is a tribe that falls. Humans are not an individual animal. We cannot survive as isolated individuals. We need each other. We support each other. That is what it means to be human. If you cast that aside, then you are little more than an animal hoarding away until you die.
There is no such thing as a free society because we all have our obligations. Our obligations to our families, to our communities, to our friends, to our colleagues, and so forth. Who we are is shaped by how we fulfill those obligations.
What is amazing to me is that there are people on this thread - you all know who you are, and if you don't, we do - who immediately equate poverty with drug abuse. That is absurd. In Florida, 20.8% of people over 50 years old live below poverty. Some posters on this thread assume that the majority of those people are drug addicts. In Florida over 12% of the population of the people over 50 years old are unemployed. Of course that number does not include the people who have simply quit looking for work. Some posters here naively believe that anyone can work who want to work. Some posters here apparently believe that people over the age of 50 can easily find a job if they only wanted to work.
As often happens conservatives are either uninterested in facts or unable to understand them. Only "elitists" are interested in statistics. Most people who receive public assistance are not drug abusers. I would challenge Conservative to pony up with the facts to base her assertions.
Well I say don't test the welfare recipients because that is a waste of my money. Or confine the testing to people who are getting child benefits to ensure the welfare of the children.
Individual freedom trumps your morality, or at least it should.
The Mayor's concept of individual freedom is that the individual should never be denied his freedom to decline to contribute his money to causes he deems unworthy. That would, of course, include any and all federal "welfare" programs.
The Mayor suspects his concept of individual freedom is too moral for your acceptance.
Well I say don't test the welfare recipients because that is a waste of my money. Or confine the testing to people who are getting child benefits to ensure the welfare of the children.
Individual freedom trumps your morality, or at least it should.
Well at least you acknowledge that it's emotional and therefore not based in rationality.
Welcome to the western hemisphere, where only the United States allows wide-spread drug testing in the employment sector beyond high security positions.
If people are performing well at their jobs then how is it any of your business what they do in their off hours?
Corporate execs do smack too, do they get tested?
I don't think so.
It's about authority and control, little else. If an employee is a liability because of lost productivity, then fire them. What they put in their body is none of your concern.
I'm not parroting anyone. Can you actually counter my arguments instead of going all partisan about it? I don't even live in the U.S.
The Florida prison system is not synonymous with rehab. Nice try though.
Most people get hard time, and in the case of three strikes, they get life.
Have fun paying that tab with "your money" while you're busy being indignant about something that has nothing to do with you. You're in the pocket of politicians now... or should I say, they are in yours.
Being forced to work without pay is slavery. Being tossed into solitary confinement or facing retribution for not working is also slavery. I don't care if they're inmates or not. A lot of prisons don't pay their inmates for the work they do, it's just made to seem like it's part of the penance.
It's nice that they are giving hardcore alcoholics a pass. I guess they are telling welfare recipients to switch to fortified wine.
I'm sorry, but it seems that you may have used a debilitating cocktail of drugs before you stumbled upon your current position, such that it is. Why do I think that you must be a TSA ball handler who works at the airport in Baton Rouge groping thousands upon thousands to catch one. That's the new America, isn't it? Guilty until proven innocent. That's growth industry, Big Brother. You obviously like fascism and want to see more of your money going to support state paranoia.
What is amazing to me is that there are people on this thread - you all know who you are, and if you don't, we do - who immediately equate poverty with drug abuse. That is absurd. In Florida, 20.8% of people over 50 years old live below poverty. Some posters on this thread assume that the majority of those people are drug addicts. In Florida over 12% of the population of the people over 50 years old are unemployed. Of course that number does not include the people who have simply quit looking for work. Some posters here naively believe that anyone can work who want to work. Some posters here apparently believe that people over the age of 50 can easily find a job if they only wanted to work.
As often happens conservatives are either uninterested in facts or unable to understand them. Only "elitists" are interested in statistics. Most people who receive public assistance are not drug abusers. I would challenge Conservative to pony up with the facts to base her assertions.
Anyone that has a problem with being drug tested as a condition of receiving welfare is certainly free to not accept the money and go get a job. Afterall, it is a free country.
You mean test people most likely to vote republican? Don't hold your breath Dana.
Yeah, here's your choice. Live on the street, or submit to constant government monitoring. Whoooooo, free!
Yeah right. We subsidize the crap out of corporations and other entities; but no one is calling for restrictions on them or that money. But some poor jerk on welfare...well we have to make sure it's being spent right. After all, we all know best.
Or, behind Door #3: get off your ass and get a job. Just a thought.
I don't know why people think this is unreasonable, especially since most that advocate this idea also advocate testing for all governemnt employees including politicians.
Tim-
No one wants to be drug tested, why? Because it is such a chore to pee in a cup? Or because so many of us would fail?