I get tired of right-wing, conservatives always complaining how their taxes go to helping the "lazy, immoral, and/or stupid drug using" people on welfare.
First, that portion of federal tax dollars that actually go to welfare is so small that the government would not save much by excluding the tiny portion of people who could be excluded for drug-use. Over 75% of all federal tax dollars go to the military for blowing stuff up--if that money was used to build schools and hospitals, we probably wouldn't have anyone out of work.
Second, people who have lost their jobs due to involvement with drugs are already precluded from collecting unemployment, whether that makes sense or not.
Third, people who collect unemployment have already had money taken out of their paychecks to cover the premiums for unemployment insurance.
Fourth, all of these people on welfare which the small-minded author suspects of sitting around doing drugs instead of looking for work, are also tax-payers.
Fifth, urinalysis is useful for screening some drugs such as marijuana, which stay in the system for at least thirty days. However, other even more destructive drugs, such as cocaine, speed, and alcohol, pass through the system much faster and are therefore harder to detect so drug testing is more likely to exclude soft-drug users as opposed to hard-drug users.
But do you really think we should be criminalizing drugs in the first place? Think of all the money we could save if we legalized pot -- not only would we get extra tax money which could be put to use in schools, we could also cut down on inmate costs. Not only that, but the police force would be relieved of a huge burden.
ReplyDeleteI go into more depth here. (Incidentally my blog has the same name as yours.)
I agree, Sam. Thanks for the comment. Love your blog too.
Delete