raghu wrote:
Hypothetically, assume the best case scenario where each citizen does receive annual payments of $10,000.00. Given the current levels of indebtedness, how much of that on average would go towards debt-servicing on the lower-end of the income scale?
I think that's where the scary part is... bear with me while I ramble and extrapolate/interpolate: I am going to call it as I see it... The "Dawes Allotment Act" for American social services. Buy everyone off. The "Dawes" Act sounded like a great idea, all the supporters of Indian rights backed it, while in reality (but not in the documents) the act had an underlying premise: "Use and abuse them before they understand what to do with their newfound... wealth." . > > Few attained the self-sufficiency envisioned by the humanitarian groups. > > The congressionally commissioned Meriam Report of 1928 documented fraud and misappropriation by government agents. In particular, the act was used to illegally deprive Indians of their land rights. After considerable debate, the congress terminated the allotment process by enacting the Wheeler-Howard Act (Indian Reorganization Act) of 1934. > > The Act had one of the most substantial impacts on Natives, most significantly affecting Native gender roles. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawes_Act> > > ...which leads me to wonder about the sociological effect on people to whom $10,000 seems to be an unachievable sum, no less in lumpsum... to immediately and fully fathom how to diburse it. How many of the few inner-city "nuclear families" that DO actually exist despite the social-services-system-as-we-know-it will implode/explode in fruitless money squabbles? Ditto for many in the working and lower middle class folks who live paycheck to paycheck. Conventional financial planning wisdom say that windfall should be applied to paying down debt. This would look much like windfall to someone who doesn't need the money for it's assigned purpose at the moment, but has a 'Typically American [tm]' pressing debt load. Compare with those leasebacks the Dawes Allotment Act handed out, forced upon, a people who often didn't even know what a lease was... then taken advantage of by just about everyone. I believe "Dawes" was also part of the driving force behind the "blood quantum" that even to this day is so important in determining ancestry, and a continually divisive and contentious issue among Native Americans. A permanent wedge in Native American culture. What would happen if that type of sociological wedge were applied to all average income Americans? Leigh http://leighm.net/
