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Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

You're suggestions might make sense if US politics was optimized to help poor people, or people most in need - or if this is what Americans in general care about.

It's not.

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But why make folks already dealing with a lot of complexity in their lives go through long court processes, do lots of paperwork etc. Poor folks have to be in a database somewhere - give them money and get out of the way?

It's not that simple. A lot of those poor folks in your database won't have a bank account, or won't have stable contact information, or will have other financial priorities with the money. I'm generally a huge fan of cash grant based welfare, but if you're trying to do immediate emergency relief to ensure people don't get evicted during a pandemic, it's not up to the task.

Yeah it’s impossible to get any government aid without a permanent address that is not General Delivery at a post office. Housing is not just about keeping a roof over your head. For people who are already reliant on welfare and unemployment it’s the difference between being on the dole and losing everything.

Best we can do is cut taxes on the rich and hope it trickles down.

We are incredibly creative and ingenious people. That's not "the best we can do". Why hope that a solution being discussed over on hundred years ago[1] will spontaneously start working? Identify who stands to benefit from those solutions, how it divides the the populace, and find a better solution. Self-defeatism is a mind killer.

[1] William Jennings Bryan described the concept using the metaphor of a "leak" in his Cross of Gold speech

I think you need to read the grandparent comment as a statement on what's wrong with society rather than an endorsement of the status quo.

Thank you for pointing this out. I read GP in earnest. Your comment helped me re-evaluate that.

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