It's around, what, 10% of the US population receive whole or partial support? If that's 'an entire voting block' then we're far more ****ed than I thought.
A lot of people on various forms of welfare do work - they just don't earn enough money from their employment to cover all the costly expenses of living. YES there is a portion which are generationally-dependent and have no desire to get off of assistance - but yet they still don't make the majority of that 10%.
The most beneficial thing would be to have someone who can actually form and put forward actually legislation, programs and support systems that will CHANGE things - Obama's not that guy, McCain isn't - quite a few aren't.
WE have a lot of problems and *just wanting* them to go away won't actually *make* the problems go away. . .and all other measures done by our government are ineffective bits of bull****.
If that's the case, then why do the Dems call themselves the, "poor man's party"? Must be alotta poor votes to be gotten out there.
Problems Linked to Poverty: Political Alienation
"Given how hard the poor have to struggle to get by, you might expect that they would be politically active and eager to bring about change. Sometimes poor people do organize politically, but many do not even bother to vote. In the 2008 presidential election, about 80 percent of people earning $100,000 or more voted. Just under half of people earning less than $10,000 did the same. This pattern suggests that many poor people feel alienated from a system that they think does not serve their interests.
So I'm outlining a chapter on "Poverty and Wealth" in America (sociology) - I'll quote (Book is: "Social Problems - Auth: Macionis - 4th ED)
(*edit: Hatuey, et al: I actually suggest you guys read this book. Sure, it's a college textbook - but the information is solid, statistics are explained and straight to the point and it explores many issues from all sorts of views. It's been recently updated and pertains to very recent events. Lots of good stuff in here and I've only touched on a few chapters so far.)
While I agree that the poor often feel alienated from the political system, I feel it's far more likely that they don't vote because your daily routine is busier the poorer you are. Example a single mother of 2 kids who works a full time job is not likely to give up her domestic and work duties to go vote. The same goes for a man who works for minimum wage to support his family. I don't think the author takes into consideration the amount of work related to actually being poor.
"Some government programs take from the rich and others give to the poor. But many programs, such as the recent corporate bailouts, benefit wealthier individuals and families. Even among "ordinary" people the tax deduction on home mortgage interest costs the government about $385B annually and most of this benefit goes to affluent people who own larger homes. The home mortgage deduction is worth ten time as much as what the government spends to provide food assistance to low-income people.