Really..It's our fault your "friend" isn't working. The only time I think society is at fault is when they DO NOT incarcerate someone that does break the law, simply because they think they're too good to flip burgers.
We do not owe your friend a thing, if he can't get it by himself, he doesn't deserve it.

Oh yeah...who gets to pick which laws your friend gets to break and not be held against him?

How did "other people" cause his loss of passion?

Most European countries are a so-called social state (I think that's the correct term), where the state provides all citizens with the bare minima to live, in terms of housing, food and healthcare. These commodities are funded by taxes, which the citizens agree to pay, in order for everybody in the society to survive, even if they would not have the ability to do so otherwise.
Of course, those minima are supposed to be low enough so that one wants to improve them through work.

From what I understand, the US don't work that way (of course I could be wrong). You don't get to pay taxes for other people's healthcare but on the other hand you have homeless people.

It's the choices you make as a society.

 

From what I understand, the US don't work that way (of course I could be wrong). You don't get to pay taxes for other people's healthcare but on the other hand you have homeless people.

Not really true. nearly any major US city has some kind of county hospital (taxpayer funded) that provides health care to the indigent, even to illegal aliens who are not even here legally. It's one of the largest "hidden costs" to taxpayers of the illegal alien workforce in our country.

It's true we have a lot of homeless people for a number of reasons. That has been there for decades and decades. I'm not sure there is a solution to that problem, many have tried.

 

Most European countries are a so-called social state (I think that's the correct term), where the state provides all citizens with the bare minima to live, in terms of housing, food and healthcare.


We have this, and we have generations of people living like this with no desire to get a job. They like to blame their situation on somebody else, they take no responsibility for their actions.
I have had students collect a check,tuition paid, gas money, for coming to school. And what do they do, they sell their books, skip classes, and finally quit. The main reason according to them "It's too hard, I'll never understand". And then they sign up for a different class. They think it's all owed to them, and they will be the first to tell you that."The old generation screwed up the world for us, you have to keep us up"


These commodities are funded by taxes, which the citizens agree to pay, in order for everybody in the society to survive, even if they would not have the ability to do so otherwise.
Of course, those minima are supposed to be low enough so that one wants to improve them through work.

Some here are satisfied with that, just as long as they can get a new tattoo and stereo every so often.

From what I understand, the US don't work that way (of course I could be wrong). You don't get to pay taxes for other people's healthcare but on the other hand you have homeless people.

It's the choices you make as a society.

I'm glad there's not too many of them...

 

@ Georacer, the wording you used is right for the new middle class in America.

Every thing is supplied to people who can't find work now. No jobs, it makes it

easier for people to change lifestyle. Emergency rooms provide free health care.

With no jobs people can never afford to pay any bills. Sick people need housing.

You know that where do you live map we have on the Forum ,Americans are going

to be different color dots to make sure every one has a middle class living standard.

We are no different that what you describe, global economy.

 

In my younger days I gave recommendations for a couple of my friends that I didn't think were going to be great workers, but were friends and I felt obligated to ask around. They never got hired. Ultimately, I think my poor recommendations reflected more poorly on me than it did on my friends.

These days I must know the person very well before I offer to give a recommendation, and they have to be a good employee - a hard worker, driven, and smart - that's all most employers have wanted everywhere I've worked. These people are hard to find outside of work, and I work with many of them.

There are too many folks that want everything handed to them, and only want the good work. You have to take the good with the bad, and have to earn your stripes. That's just business.

I wouldn't want your friend working with me either. I've worked with many folks like him as well. In fact I found out a few weeks ago that a coworker of mine was laid off. I had the opportunity to give him work a few weeks prior to his lay-off, and I declined. If he had shown the least bit of initiative in the past, maybe I would have given him the work.

Give your friend some tough love - share this thread with him... He's either going to heed the advise or not... it's his life...

Also, choose your friends wisely.

 

Next door is not the same any more ,you don't know what checks and benefits are

being mail or being added to government aid plastic cards. Cell phones are the same,

so do you really know your neighbor. Don't assume anything.

 

What happens if I know somebody that needs work , is not a good worker because he only works good when there is something he is passion it about.
But knows he needs to work, no companies currently will hire him, he can't get unemployment.

He is willing to work pretty much anywhere provided the company pays for a living quarter since he can't move because he is unsure of a permanent move/doesn't have the money.

So what would one do in this cases... remember he is not a good worker but he tries.

Money kind of restricts us all into do things we don't want to. So it is only logic that since everybody needs money everybody should have the ability to find a job to support his living quality. If not then somebody else should have to and let the person be.

So what are you saying? That if someone can't bring themselves to do good enough work for someone to want them on the payroll unless he is sufficiently passionate about it, that someone else should be required to work even harder so as to pay for him to support his living quality? It's one thing to subsidize the incomes of people who physically or mentally are not capable of providing for themselves, but just because someone can't get passionate about their worK?

Can they get passionate about eating? Impending hunger can be a good motivating factor for someone to get passionate about working.

I have a relative that is ultra lazy and, as far as I know, has never kept a job longer than two months (usually more like two weeks) and usually ends up getting fired for stealing money from the till. I seriously doubt if her total lifetime employment, at the age of 52, adds up to even a year. Perhaps you should be required to hire her to clean your house once a week. So what if she eats everything in your fridge, steals your jewelry, and leaves your house filthy. After all, it's really society's fault that she is the way she is. Oh, and you can't have her arrested or sue her to get your jewelry back, because she's only taking it to support her living quality.

So how does she survive? Like so many people like her, she milks the system for all its worth. Her "meager" welfare payments are so low that she could only afford a two bedroom apartment and barely enough food to sustain her 350lb weight -- and her cell phone and her cable TV and her three year-old car. Because of her weight she also gets disability income -- and one year she was all panicky because she needed to gain some weight back before the end of the month otherwise she might lose her disability. And when it came time for her knees to get replaced? No problem. Medicaid (i.e., the taxpayers) took care of that without a batting an eye.

 

There you go ,you want me to start assuming that your friend has a glass house.

You don't want me to assume that your friend are on the sore knee's praying.