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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Words matter.

You aren't writing an academic paper. Always use simple direct language.

  • Help the poor
  • Healthcare for everyone
  • Good treatment at work.

Don't use complex words.

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 7 hours ago

Yep. Never use a ten dollar word when a 50 cent one does the job better. The left wing needs to dump it's highbrow (and cringe celebrity endorsements) and use the language of the common people in simple terms that cannot be demonised (or would sound insane to try).

Also, this is a prime example of how demonising words, especially buzzwords, is the strategy they use to make it lose all rationality with the public... the notion of being "woke" originally a good thing, welfare a good thing, etc...

[-] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

Doesn't work, they take the cheap words too. "Fake news" was originally used for right-wing propaganda. The only solution is education so that future generations are more aware of and resistant to dog whistles and doublespeak.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

I get the critical comments here, but I think there's a basic association of the word "welfare" with the CURRENT system of assistance which leaves too many people out. Democrats have made the current apparati too hard to qualify for with their means-testing. If they were sincere in working for the masses, they would push more universal programs, but at least on the national level, they are bought out by the same corporations as the Republicans.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Godamnnnnn we are fucking monkey smooth brain fucks

[-] [email protected] 14 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

The issue is entirely a media problem. Can you tell yet?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

Did the study define the kinds of assistance at all or was it simply the choice of terms?

“Welfare” is defined and had a lot of baggage with it. Opinion about welfare can be wildly different individually and demographically.

“Assistance” isn’t defined, people can place their own restrictions on what that hypothetical assistance is, who gets it based on their own prejudices, needs, and ideology.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 hours ago

Nah, see, you're falling into the trap. "Welfare" has baggage only because conservatives have attached baggage to it via their relentless propaganda campaigns. In practice, welfare is literally just assistance. In practice, the two words are synonymous. The fact that you perceive a difference in them is evidence that the conservative propaganda is working.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Kind of you to assume it was my baggage I was describing, and that I don’t understand the subject at hand.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 13 hours ago
[-] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

UBI is pretty naive unless there are checks in place to prevent landlords and consumer goods from increasing costs by the same amount.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago
  1. Does UBI increase inflation?

The impact of UBI on inflation depends on various factors, including the funding mechanism, the level of the UBI payment, and broader macroeconomic conditions. Some studies suggest that modest UBI programs are unlikely to significantly impact inflation.

-- https://ubiadvocates.org/universal-basic-income-faq-all-about-ubi/

[-] [email protected] 13 points 15 hours ago

Assistance implies that it is temporary, that it is help to help themselves.

Welfare implies that it is continuous.

If you have to continually support a part of the population then you have a systemic problem. The correct solution would be to change the system. People who support the continuation of the current system either profit from it or don't see an advantage in a change.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 8 hours ago

Assistance implies that it is temporary,

Not it does not. Ever heard of "aim assist"? "Assisted living"? "assistive touch" (the iOS feature)? I don't see how any of these are temporary.

But yeah the correct solution is indeed to change the system. There will always be naysayers who argue that "no one system can suit everybody" so I guess we'll need a system of systems.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

If you have to continually support a part of the population then you have a systemic problem.

To a point, maybe, but populations are always going to have disabled persons or people with chronic illnesses that require continual assistance to live a dignified life. Be careful not to write those people off with sweeping generalizations like this.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

You are right.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Do parapelegics require "temporary support"? There are some people who need continual support and they're always going to exist in any society. Disabled people. And they aren't a "systemic problem".

[-] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

Also, "assistance" is something that is given out of the kindness of your (or the government's) heart and that the recipient should feel gratitude (and/or have to grovel) for. "Welfare" is seen as something the recipient is entitled to as a right. FWIW I support a UBI that is adequate for food and shelter and the necessities of life - as an entitlement for everybody.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Hey, a UBI supporter! Just curious, how can UBI be implemented in a way that doesn't result in hyperinflation? If a society was to ration out food/shelter/necessities directly, I understand how that would work. But if it's done through the intermediary of money, what would prevent the economy from entering an arms race where the producers raise prices to adapt to the new purchasing power of the population, and the government raises the UBI to keep up with the rising prices?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

Just curious, how can UBI be implemented in a way that doesn’t result in hyperinflation?

I don't know - and we're never going to find out, in the United States at least. I may support UBI but that doesn't mean it's not the biggest pipe dream in the history of pipe dreams.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Existing studies show little or no affect on inflation.

https://ubiadvocates.org/universal-basic-income-faq-all-about-ubi/ (#11)

So, "just handing out money" is a way to implement UBI without hyperinflation.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

A buyers market. Let competition drive down prices, or cooperation from people with UBI who don't need the profits.

That's for basic goods. It's good that other prices rise so that people are motivated to work.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 15 hours ago

But it doesn't have to be the same group in the population. Probably a portion is the same but the larger picture is all those you help up again so they can help support the community/country/state, and the price is helping the group that otherwise make the community unsafe so they in large can ... act decently to others and live a life without violence

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[-] [email protected] 17 points 16 hours ago

One of the main reasons why USAID was the first part of the government targeted was because of things like this.

If you frame their work as "Assistance to disasters" or other variations, plus the context of it being under 1% of the Federal budget, Americans were find with it. If you call it "giving taxpayer money to foreigners" then it's wildly unpopular.

Which is to say that the lesson is that most people are idiots and have no idea what's going on in the world. Framing a narrative can get the same individual to simultaneously support and hate literally the same thing. It can get people to support policies and actions that directly harm them.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Which is to say that the lesson is that most people are idiots and have no idea what's going on in the world.

Not that the information channels that inform them blast high-octane corporate-friendly propaganda since childhood, leaving no attention for any other perspectives?

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[-] [email protected] 19 points 17 hours ago

IIRC "ACA" and "Obamacare" had similar divides. Propaganda is a helluva drug.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago

Could you share the source for the graph please?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Its listed, UChicago NORC. I can only find raw data from NORC from 1973 to 2014 when I search though.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago
[-] [email protected] 35 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

because welfare has been propagandized as used by "lazy and homeless, and poors, and blacks" its usually based on racism as well, the true welfare queens are Conservative voters.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

Oh the TRUE welfare queens are billionaires, corporations get more assistance than people

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[-] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ah, ~40% of Americans are complete fucking morons, that sounds about right.

~40% of Americans also read and write at an elementary school level or worse, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

... I think we've found the mythical 'independent, median voter'.

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[-] [email protected] 131 points 1 day ago

One of many lasting “gifts” of Reagan.

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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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