Jeff, my challenge to you was based on the following posts in this thread:
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Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
I think we are all guilty of speaking in generalities at times. Or maybe "guilty" is too strong of a word; "prone" may be better. I get the impression when folks decry "stereotypical poor", and their bilking of the taxpayer (through our gubmint) for sustinance, they are refering to the life-long, or at least long-term poor that make no apparent effort to help themselves. Ever. It has even reached the point where it is a cultural thing that spans generations. We have this class of citizen (and non-citizen) here in the U.S.; those are the "stereotypical poor" to whom we refer when speaking in such generalities.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
The other sort to which I refer simply always have some "reason" - maybe even valid in their own minds, for not even trying. They'll talk your ear off with their tales of woe, how they never get a break, how they are always unlucky. They spend their lives on the dole, never turning them around. Those are the ones I deride.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
There is a quite well documented, and equally thoroughly discussed and studied portion of our population that has very much chosen to be lazy, and have chosen to have the rest of us support them in their laziness. I'm not sure what percentage of our population they comprise, but I am quite sure I have not conjured up these folks to "substantiate" my "position". I was merely using them to illustrate the difference between a one-time user of our welfare benefits and a habitual user of those benefits. Can we agree there is a difference? A fundamental difference? That is all I was getting at.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
The existence of this class of people in the U.S. is so frickin' blindingly obvious, so thoroughly studied, documented, and discussed that you would have had to been living on another planet to have missed them.
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So, you see, you made several pretty bold statements about this obvious and well studied group of lazy welfare recipients. I simply asked you to substantiate that this group exists and is in fact well studied and obvious. Everyone agrees that there is a percentage of people on welfare who choose not to work. All the research on the topic (even the stuff you posted) points to the fact that the vast majority of the people on welfare are exactly like story of the man that started the thread.
This is why I asked about the inconsistency of the positions of many of the people on this thread, including yourself.
Ok, dead horse beaten. I'm done.