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View Full Version : Poor People don't want free housing!



Tim Cornelis
16th June 2012, 00:03
Poor people don't want free housing, at least, not according to Giuliani.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/24630-colombias-poor-wont-value-free-housing-giuliani.html


Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani indirectly criticized the Colombian presidents plan to give 100,000 houses to the countrys poorest citizens, saying that people do not value objects they obtain free of charge.

Warning that he does not know the full details of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos plan, Giuliani, speaking at a conference in Cartagena Friday, said that people only value what they earn, local news media reported.

It is possible to give as part of a social policy, he told the Colombian Congress of Construction. But create a process in which giving is part of earning.

Santos has been spearheading a plan, called the Rural Affordable Housing Program, which calls for the government to spend $75 million on 100,000 new and upgraded houses for poor and displaced families. The houses are to be completed by 2013, and the national government is expected to fund 80 percent of their cost, with municipal governments supplying the remaining 20 percent. Past affordable housing initiatives have required applicants to pay 10 percent of the cost.

Giuliani said the key to helping poorer families is to offer them work that allows them to earn income for housing, calling handouts disrespectful," according to Portafolio.co.

Reward them if they evolve and earn a place in society through effort, Giuliani said. And take away the benefits if otherwise.

He is, of course, reiterating the neoclassical/neoliberal myth that if you are poor you are lazy, and that's the reason you don't have things such as decent housing. The complete alienation and detachment from the real world is astounding.

Regicollis
16th June 2012, 00:11
the key to helping poorer families is to offer them work that allows them to earn income for housing, calling handouts “disrespectful,"

This sounds rather sane; give people some honest work that pays a living wage instead of giving them "handouts". Unfortunately the politicians always stop after having slashed the "handouts" - by some unfortunate coincidence they never get to the "offer them work" part of the plan.

ed miliband
16th June 2012, 00:17
This sounds rather sane; give people some honest work that pays a living wage instead of giving them "handouts". Unfortunately the politicians always stop after having slashed the "handouts" - by some unfortunate coincidence they never get to the "offer them work" part of the plan.

nah man, i reckon if it was feasible to have a decent standard of living on benefits, without the boredom and alienation inherent in unemployment in a capitalist society, most people would take "handouts" over "honest work". more people than some on the left would like to admit anyway.

Art Vandelay
16th June 2012, 00:33
nah man, i reckon if it was feasible to have a decent standard of living on benefits, without the boredom and alienation inherent in unemployment in a capitalist society, most people would take "handouts" over "honest work". more people than some on the left would like to admit anyway.

I would respectfully disagree. Laziness isn't the problem its a symptom. No one is naturally "lazy," to paraphrase Berkman: you show me a lazy man and I'll show you a square peg being forced into a round hole.

Tim Cornelis
16th June 2012, 00:46
This sounds rather sane; give people some honest work that pays a living wage instead of giving them "handouts". Unfortunately the politicians always stop after having slashed the "handouts" - by some unfortunate coincidence they never get to the "offer them work" part of the plan.

"the key to helping poorer families is to offer them work that allows them to earn income for housing."

Indeed, it sounds too sane. You don't think the Colombian government knows this? If they could have, they would have already. The problem is, they can't. You can't just wave your magic 'desirable-paying-a-decent-salary-work' wand around. And Giuliani doesn't understand that.

Ocean Seal
16th June 2012, 01:56
Its clever reasoning by reactionaries to cut benefits. I'm sure most people would take free stuff, they just wouldn't brag about it.

Prometeo liberado
16th June 2012, 02:54
These benefits are never "free". They've been paid for endless times over through stolen labour and the endless burden of taxes a worker pays. From sin taxes on smokes and beer to the higher gas prices in the working class 'hoods to the obscene idea of "the cost of living". We "ask" for nothing, we demand the human right of housing currently being denied us in the face of unprecedented foreclosures and empty dwellings.

Scarlet Fever
16th June 2012, 03:29
"Reward them if they evolve"? Behold, the social Darwinism at the core of US-style fascism.

Rafiq
16th June 2012, 03:53
Because Giuliani would know

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jookyle
16th June 2012, 04:09
It's amazing he's even able to get a word out with lips so tightly attached to the ass of every banker in New York.

This is really just propaganda saying that people agree with the system and if they aren't a cog in the machine then they want to starve. It's a pathetic attempt to work around saying "Poor people are poor because they want to be poor. They starve out of choice." while insisting that those who work are more evolved because they're okay with taking advantage of workers and exploiting labor or ,at the very least, are okay with being exploited.

GPDP
16th June 2012, 17:26
I think it says something about the state of world politics and the extent to which the US ruling class feels compelled to stick its nose where it has no real business that a goddamn ex-mayor criticizes another country's government over a policy seemingly unrelated to anything. Does he really have nothing better to do?

MEGAMANTROTSKY
16th June 2012, 17:34
You can't just wave your magic 'desirable-paying-a-decent-salary-work' wand around. And Giuliani doesn't understand that.
I think he understands it perfectly well; he just doesn't care.