C-da and Ram-da,
I am not so conversant with US welfare system but I recollected doing an assignment doing my program at Harvard on quantitative analysis of Welfare payments in different states in USA -- and trying to see if racism and political ideologies caused them to vary so much the data was from US Gov sources:
However, since last year the course S:30 has changed a lot -for the better (many of us had also suggested that it be overhauled) and that assignment is no longer there.
But that assignment goes to show that US govt has a system of welfare payments to poor. Thats exactly what I was driving at. That US or European poor can and do go to poor nations like India or Thailand and live well - on welfare doles. Maybe Europeans constitute more of the Hippies who have made India their home since they get more dole.
more info: http://post.economics.harvard.edu/hier/2001papers/HIER1933.pdf (Harvard study: Why USA does not have a Europe styled welfare state)
Umesh
PS: my intro from the assignment discussing the issue of welfare payments
S 030
INTRODUCTION: The PredictorVariables
- In the last assignment we found that nearly one third of the variation in welfare grants ( outcome variable GRANT) across states was associated with the cost of living (predictor Log2Col) in the states. But cost of living does not tell the whole story . Now we analyze the contention by two researchers (Mr Primus and Ms Lav.)
Mr Primus says that racism is responsible for the remaining variation, so he has gathered data of the racial composition of each state and tried to explain how the proportion of whites to non whites in the population of a state (predictor variable RATIO) might be
responsible for the remaining variation in GRANT values.
The data does show that there is a lot of variation in the racial composition among states. Mississippi has the lowest ratio of (RATIO = 1.7 ) whites to non whites and also has the lowest welfare ( GRANT = 120,) whereas Vermont
Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Exactly Ram.First off, retirement benefits are NOT 'dole' -- handouts -- or charity. We ought to know what these words mean before we throw them around. More so when we do that in condescension. Similarly, retirement benefits are NOT unemployment insurance benefits.Anyway, unemployment insurance premiums are paid for by the EMPLOYER. It is required by state law.401 K is a retirement savings plan, that an employee contributes towards. The savings are invested by the trustees in different instruments, like the stock-market. The income is re-invested, and it grows tax free. Sometimes an employer would ADD a percentage of the employee's contribution to the amount. It is like a bonus, or an incentive, to save. But it is the employee's money. NOT a DOLE.At 2:37 PM -0600 2/20/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote:Umesh,However, as I read somewhere, some become citizens in the West and return in old age to their poor countires and survive very nicely on the generous unemployment dole (as do Hippies)I don't know about other countries, US Citizens who retire in India at old age, don't get unemployment benefits. What they get is retirement benefits from Social Security (which they paid into all their working lives), 401 K/457 K retirement (which they also contributed, 100% or part contributions), or other retirement saving's plans.Even "unemployment doles" are NOT freebees as some would like to assume. Unemployement insurance is paid to the govt. by employers and it lasts only for a short period.Often, employers' rates rise when ex-employees claim unemployement benefits. So many employers make it look like those who make such claimaints are dead-beats and a drag on society.I would argue, that its the cost of doing business, and everyone who is unemployed (laid off) is entitled to it and no stigma be attached to it.Am not sure if employees somehow also pay into the unemp. insurance scheme. Maybe someelse can enlighten us.
--Ram da
On 2/20/06, umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My note: In 2004 summer Olympics at Athens the basketball Gold went to obscure and poor Peurto Rico -who beat longstanding champions - USA. How? -- by watching the videos of games played by Michael "Air" Jordan and Chicago Bulls --and playing accrodingly. Modern communication means knowledge can be trasferred easily across the globe. The secrets are out. Countries, companies across the world are quick to adopt tactics and strategies being currently used by Western ones.UmeshPS: However, for poor countries like India there are millions who would love to work in the West -for the one who opts to go back. However, as I read somewhere, some become citizens in the West and return in old age to their poor countires and survive very nicely on the generous unemployment dole (as do Hippies)---------------------------------article's Best quote:In his book Thomas Friedman puts it another way: "In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears--and that is our problem."..."That is especially true in China, where the government has put its muscle behind an all-out effort to transform homegrown science. "Ten years ago in China, it was virtually all derivative stuff," says Chu. "Students would sit and listen and try to capture every word. Now they're asking lots of questions." During a 100th-anniversary celebration for Peking University a few years ago, Chu found himself seated next to China's Minister for Education. "She was asking for my autograph," he says, shaking his head. "It was totally topsy-turvy. Can you imagine in the U.S. the Secretary of Education fawning on a Nobel prizewinner? It just won't happen."--------------------------------------------------------------------------Coverhttp://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1156575,00.htmlAre We Losing Our Edge?
The U.S. still leads the world in scientific innovation. But years of declining investment and fresh competition from abroad threaten to end our supremacy
By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK
Feb. 13, 2006Gabriel Aeppli was born in Switzerland, but when he was 1 year old, his father came to the U.S. to pursue a career as a mathematician. Back then, America was a scientific "city on the hill," a place where enormous resources, academic freedom, a tradition of skepticism and a history of excellence lured everyone from astronomers to zoologists from all over the world, and like Aeppli's father, many of them never had any interest in leaving.Aeppli, now 48, attended M.I.T., where he got a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, and went on to work at Bell Labs, the legendary research arm of AT&T. Then he moved on to the NEC research laboratory, outside Princeton, N.J., as a senior research scientist. But while industrial labs used to be well-funded havens for freewheeling scientific inquiry, says Aeppli, "my career was limited because opportunities to lead were very few." So he left for an academic job in Britain. He now holds a chair in physics at University College London and also directs the London Center for Nanotechnology. "I've been able to start with a clean sheet of paper and create something unique in a world-class city," he says. "We doubt that could be done anywhere else."
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
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