Friday, February 24, 2012

You Get What You Pay For

From The Daily Pundit:

Our society chooses to pay for bastards and wonders why the number of bastards increases. Our society refuses to support poor families with married fathers in residence, and wonders why the number of single mothers increases. Our society pays for single motherhood, and wonders why we get it. Our society gives stipends to unemployed and/or homeless males, and wonders why we get more and more of them.


Why on earth would any of the poor pay attention to “cultural signals” when the check that comes to them pays for exactly the opposite?

The phenomenon is called "perverse incentives". 
It is why a government anti-global warming program is paying me to run forklifts all night.  (Hit the label below)
It is why we're subsidizing corn syrup producers while subsidizing an anti-obesity campaign. 
It's why a lot of beautiful, intelligent kids are put in Special Ed in exchange for their parents getting a "
crazy check". 

But but but but....our intentions are always so pure !



7 comments:

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ said...

"It is why a government anti-global warming program is paying me to run forklifts all night. (Hit the label below)???

Are you getting a "crazy check" from Cedric's Patron?

Dr Ralph said...

Most (if not all) of the bastards I encounter on a daily basis were not born bastards; they are self-made bastards.

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ said...

Is the good comrade doctor morphing into a libertarian geek as opposed to a Marxian geek?

Anonymous said...

No, we get what they decide we pay for. We have an unrepresentative democratic republic. If anyone with common sense and accountability got control of the government there would be hell to pay. When you stop all those checks in one week things tend to grind to a halt. I personally believe that all the money should be given to the states to do with as they see fit - that is, not collected in the first place. If the people local to where you live will not give you welfare there might be a reason for it.
That will fall foul of other issues but there is something to be said for telling people to clean up their own back yard, giving them the tools to do it instead of simply paying someone to clean it up for them once a month. If you need a few dollars for some new trash bags, ok, but I don't want to pay people to do the work for you.

Dr Ralph said...

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ - in honor of my son transferring out of a certain university known as a primary source of libertarian hot air, I've taken on the guise of the WS's favorite man-crush. I'm impressed you noticed from the tiny snapshot!

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ said...

Dr Ralph,

"Transferring out" implies a process other than graduating. Heaven forfend that your son should suffer infection with libertarian heresy. In any event, we wish him success in his new situation.

Dr Ralph said...

ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ - you are correct - he's decided to finish his degree in Texas. It's less to do with Libertarian Heresy that being 1500 miles away from home.

GMU is a good school but out of state tuition is pretty formidable without scholarships to offset the cost. We have enough knuckleheads here in Texas; he doesn't need to go to Virginia to experience knuckle-headedness.