Extreme Welfare: Home Edition?

[Accipiter22]

Originally posted by: TwinkleToes77

Originally posted by: Accipiter22
she had 8 kids??? Here's what I'd love to see..a single mother of 1 or 2 kids get that house. 8 kids?? Stop breeding you filthy pig.

not to go off topic.. but you heard about the lady that just had quadruplets? 3 years after she had triplets? She also has 2 teenagers in the house.. 9 kids! AND they live in a one bedroom apartment.. Im wondering where child services is.

Uck...i wonder if she's taking some sort of hormones...blech. Some idiot takes fertitility drugs, has 9 kids, and now Oprah and the state she lives in ends up paying for everything.

 

[Apex]

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: Quasmo
There was a home built in atlanta by beezer homes, they gave the family $100,000 to pay for utilities and taxes for a very long time. The family used it all up and went back to beezer and asked for more money, and if they didn't they would goto the media. Beezer gave them another $100,000 and will not make another home for the show.

That's charity for you. It's the whole teach a man to fish story. I NEVER give money to charities because I know that only $.20 of every dollar (max) will ever go to someone who needs it. And of that $.20, only $.02 will be used efficiently. The rest gets blown on cigarettes, booze, or something else that doesn't do anything to help the underlying cause of the problem. Instead, I give to peope around me that I know really need the money and will use it wisely. I always know how each dollar I give is spent. If I give a friend $100 to help him out of a bad situation, I make sure that ALL of the $100 is spent on that situation and I make sure that the person learns a lesson out of it. It's more work for me, but it actually makes a difference.

Actually, you can't paint charities with a broad brush like that. There are many MANY charities running in the 90%+ range. It just takes some research to find a good one.

This being said, the US govt is in the 20% range. Yay for using taxes for a charity substitute. 🙁

 

[dullard]

1) Most of the time the families are NOT poor. It isn't a show about helping the poor, it is a show about helping a family with a tear-jerker story. A child that is allergic to the sun, a family that just lost the father, etc. True, some families are poor on the show (like your example. But being poor is not a requirement and often is not true. Thus, ShotgunSteven, your points really aren't applicable to most episodes.

2) You didn't bring this up, but Extreme Makeover: Home Edition leases the property from the owners for that week. Thus, any improvements to the property are income tax free. Sure, they will have to pay property taxes, but that is a much, much smaller tax.

3) These people now have their mortgage paid off, often $50,000 - $100,000 in cash, $100,000+ of free goods they could sell, and a house worth probably half a million. If they can't afford a $200 utility bill or a $5000 property tax bill, I think I can come up with many ways to pay it. Use the cash. Sell some of the free stuff. Get a mortgage on that house (they shouldn't have any problem cashing out part of that house). Or just sell the house and have a cool ~half million dollars free and clear.