Trump Apparently Idolizes Hitler

Beyond the menu at McDonalds, anyway.

 

I was a debt collector for many years. There were THIRD GENERATION welfare families! Nowadays, there's a better dole. Disability. It's much abused. So much so, that 20% of Canada Pension payments are made to persons not yet 60 years old. There are places to go that will help a person file a disability claim - one that will work. They know the lingo, which is important -- and compliant doctors who will certify. I've known people with "phantom" disabilities, who qualified for lifelong cash at 18! One girl who did so was coached by her mother - an experienced dole recipient for 25 years. It's a travesty. A well-paid one. A recipient generally gets at least twice as much as welfare.

 

Sure, Rich. I'll help you. First, you have to hide all your money. Give it here -- I'll look after that for you. And we'll have to change your name to "Poor" Douglas on the application. It looks better....

 

I believe you, in that I think everyone knows someone (or many people) who clearly take advantage. At the same time, many people who need the assistance get denied, which is frustrating. I don't actually know much about ODSP or CPP Disability but in the US there is virtually no cash welfare anymore. The closest equivalent is TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and that has a cumulative, lifetime, 5-year limit. The days of people retiring on welfare went away in the 80s. I think that most proposals to try and cut down fraud, waste, or abuse end up hurting people who really have no other options.

 

Indeed. Well, many of them, at least. Old Age Pension takes over at 65, and if a person has very modest, or no other income, they get a Federal Supplement for a guaranteed income. That's reviewed yearly at tax time. The welfare retirees were replaced by a lot of people who got more by milking Workmen's Compensation or Disability -- largely bogus claims that brought in much more money. I know a couple who have a home - paid for, that today exceeds $1.2 million in value. It's in a district I could never have hoped to EVER live in. It was paid for by BOTH of their WCB benefits for over 25 years. No work. Throughout, they seemed to be able to do everything a person who has no disability can do. People who know them way better than I do say it's all a fake.

I'm sure they're not alone. Here's a report on the WSIB's financial condition and ability to pay claims. I believe people like these have contributed to the problem.

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/report-says-wsib-may-some-day-fall-short-of-target-1.805210?cache=yes#tabsTVListingsVan_tab3

 

Never fails. Like here in Canada, we bring out a scheme to help the needy - and the low and sneaky get right ON it - instantly. And yes, @Dustin many legitimate claimants get hurt in the crossfire, when investigations are underway. Anyone who can stop both the abuse and the unwarranted deprivation inherent in such help schemes, should get the Nobel Prize. I can't do it. Not in this lifetime, anyway. Maybe when I'm back...

 

And yet the disability income system is Kafkaesque, and leaves some people who are legitimately disabled and unable to obtain living work either denied or only approved for a pittance.

 

Right -- and perhaps you, Jonathan, are the person who will get the Nobel Prize for fixing it, that I mentioned. I won't even make the short-list. Kafkaesque? Indeed. I channelled Franz K., who says he doesn't know how to fix it, either. It's too bizarre, even for him. And yes, he admits it LOOKS like his work, but it wasn't. He'd like to meet the person who set it up and exchange some story ideas...

 

I agree that Donald Trump is definitely not an enthusiastic reader. It really doesn't require that though. Here's some more detail about it. Donald does admit he has the book of Hitler speeches being referred to but seems to confuse it with Mein Kompf. But that little misunderstanding of facts would seem to match with Donald's typical sense of reality.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/donald-trump-news-joe-biden-news-old-interview-donald-trumps-first-wife-said-he-kept-hitler-speeches-beside-bed-101702997847906.html

 

Comparing that list to the list of states by worst life expectancy produces a moderately strong correlation which makes me think that the high rates of disability in those states are the result of high levels of need, but I'd be open to hearing from you and others if there are different explanations.

 

Check the poverty indexes in those states and you'll probably find the ones with highest poverty rates have the highest early death rates. Disability and poverty are tied together.

I think it's logical to expect lower life expectancy in people who have afflictions that are severe enough to prevent them from working.
Impaired health, especially permanently impaired, can often result in early death. Impairments and injuries can lower resistance to other diseases which can turn fatal. Plus, poverty leads to poor eating - and less health care. In the US that means Out-of-pocket costs (insurance or treatment) that poor folks can't meet. Lack of proper food and / or proper care can result in early death.

So the more disabled - the more early deaths. Ergo reduced average life expectancy for the region. One reason I'm glad I live here. Life expectancy averages are higher in Canada than US and are rising, here. They're falling in the US. That should worry people in Washington - not trivialities and posturing.

They should look at the numbers. they add up. That's a start on figuring what to do.

 

I was part of a federal corporate incentives program and I completely believe you. Such programs can be plagued by problems that people in charge of the programs are disincentivized to solve.
What I observed, though, is while immigrants were among those taking advantage of similar programs, they were nowhere near the worst offenders. The locals and 2nd-3rd generation folks are just more in a position to navigate the system and know what they can and cannot get away with. Personally, the part I perceived as the most problematic was the various almost-entirely-parasitic helpers infrastructure. Didn't see many immigrants running these outfits, which ranged from one-person "firms" to divisions of the likes of Deloitte. My wife was an H&R Block tax pro for a little bit and has similar impressions.
Also, I lived among the immigrant community. I saw some of the smartest people and some dumb SOBs; honest people and not so much. What I didn't see in any significant number are able-bodied people "on the dole" refusing to work. It's not really a thing.

I don't know who wrote the article in question, but no major Canadian party will significantly reduce immigration levels. Harpercons tried to play with that rhetoric, to my eternal wrath; I was at the receiving end of Hon. Jason Kenney's bogus clampdown on naturalization applicants, and I'll curse his name till one of us dies. I absolutely deplore the "abusers of Canadian generosity" fear-mongering narrative. And still! - under Harper, the immigration quote went up not down. That's because contrary to what that high-status blabbermouth at The Post writes, the immigrant workforce is the main if not only way that the pie grows at all. Canada has long suffered from anemic productivity growth (look it up), so the thing that grows the economy is simply growing the workforce, and the workforce wouldn't grow without immigrants. Simple. Low immigration = recession. The ruling caste in Ottawa knows this, Libs and Cons both. End of story. They don't like us, they make every effort to "keep us in our place" - but they need us.

In US, fertility rate is a tad higher, and productivity is a tad better - but the same general dynamic applies. It is in US's own interests to increase immigration, not decrease it (perhaps in a smarter, more "nerit-based" way). Yet neither the public nor the political class in the greatest superpower on Earth can seem to comprehend what The Maple Mediocristan understood for like a century. Sad.

 

Right. Immigrants - no. I only knew one. He collected Compensation for a couple of decades, then sold his house and took his whole family back to Italy and started working again immediately. Electrician, IIRC. Canadian for generations - yes, lots.

Absolutely! I'm with you. Damn Harper! Damn Kenney! In perpetuity!

 

Absolutely true and exemplifying that fact is the problems being faced in Florida after they passed their anti-immigration bill. They are having difficulties filling positions like farm workers, construction, and disaster cleanup.

If Trump gets reelected, his mass deportation camps will devastate millions of families and send our economy into a tail-spin.

 

Oooh...I like that! Oh, wait a minute. No, I don't.

 

I wonder who will get the Zyklon B contract?

 

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/canada-should-increase-productivity-not-simply-supercharge-immigration

"There are two ways to grow the economy over time. One is to add more workers, which expands the amount of “output” the economy can produce. The second is to build a more productive economy so the value of what’s produced increases for every hour of work. Clearly, the Trudeau government has decided on the first option—it plans to grow the economy by increasing the size of the workforce, largely through immigration.

Federal policymakers exhibit little interest in the other half of the economic growth equation—making Canadian workers and businesses more productive by creating conditions so companies will want to invest here, workers will upgrade their skills, and more Canadian businesses will innovate and export.

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests that simply enlarging the population and workforce is not a reliable way to improve overall prosperity. Despite strong immigration-fuelled population growth, Canada is struggling to increase how much our economy produces on a per-person basis—what economists call “GDP per capita.” In fact, several other peer countries with more slowly-growing populations have outperformed Canada on this key metric of economic well-being since 2015, including the United States, Germany and France.

The only way to fix Canada’s “deficit” in per-person economic growth is to tackle the country’s longstanding productivity problems. This should be the central focus of the upcoming federal budget."

 

Yeah, they have been talking about it for decades. Are they seriously pretending it's just Trudeau's problem? Or that he came up with immigration? I am not a history expert, but Ukrainian immigration pioneers Pylypiv and Eleniak (great-gramps of a Playboy and Baywatch babe, Erica) came over 100 years ago - and were paid, by the government, to be immigration promoters. I mean, do you even know anything about Canada?