dystopian novel premise:
A high flying Silicon Valley startup has invented Good Dollars, debit cards which can be restricted so that the money can only be spent “ethically” – that is, on products that have been whitelisted by the person who set up the card. Employers start paying their employees in Good Dollars instead of regular dollars so they can control how their workers spend their paychecks.
Most employers blacklist alcohol and cigarettes, because they don’t feel it’s appropriate for you to spend your paycheck on those. Some employers, being especially socially conscious, blacklist movie theatres and swimming pools, while others make it impossible to spend your money on potato chips or soda. The CEO of Walmart really hates lobsters so Walmart paychecks are restricted so you can’t buy lobster. The CEO of Amazon has a beef with steak, so if you work for Amazon your Good Dollars won’t let you buy any.
Plot twist: like all great dystopian novels, this one is just “what if we treated everyone the way we treat poor people”. Kansas lawmakers have banned welfare recipients from spending their money on movies and swimming pools. Missouri tried to ban food stamps recipients from spending the food stamps on steak, seafood, and cookies. Wisconsin is debating a ban on buying “unhealthy” food with food stamps.
So if you’re in the mood to be a brave teenage protagonist, boy have I got a system for you to take on.
The difference, is that when you WORK for your money, the government will have no say in how you spend it. You know why? Because it’s YOUR money. When you’re spending the governments money, they have the right to decide how you spend it. They have the right to say “if your poor enough to be on welfare, your too poor to buy LUXARY ITEMS.” Get over government programs and stop complaining.
This post has gotten a lot of responses to this effect, and they bother me.
If a company decides that its employees are “spending the company’s money, not your money” when they spend their paychecks, and therefore restricts paychecks so you can only spend them on virtuous things, almost everyone thinks that would be evil. Some people think it’s okay because you could always get a different job, but I think even most of those people would prefer that companies not do this.
We all know that some people will make bad choices. Pretty much no one thinks that justifies Good Dollars (partially because we think people have the right to make bad choices, partially because we think people are better at knowing their own needs than their bosses or Congress).
What does it mean to say someone on benefits doesn’t deserve to go swimming? That they are wrong to have decided swimming is a good use of their money, which the government knows because it is great at prescribing peoples’ personal lives and could definitely never go wrong while doing so? That, even though they’re right that going swimming will keep them healthy and happy, they don’t deserve to be healthy or happy? Maybe what people really mean is that not being allowed to go swimming will motivate people go get a job, but there’s no evidence to suggest it does and in any event lack of motivation isn’t really the barrier to employment for most unemployed people.
It really seems to me that the reason people feel it’s okay for welfare programs to do this is that we think people on benefits are fundamentally less trustworthy, less deserving of happiness, and less capable of making choices than other people. And honestly, fuck that. The government sucks at running peoples’ lives. Pretty much everyone can run their own life better than the government can do it for them. And every single being in the world is deserving of happiness and always will be, because happiness is good and suffering is bad.
For many people, such as diabetics, “unhealthy” food is sometimes medically necessary.
Also, children who are on food stamps still have birthdays, and should be allowed birthday cake. I mean, if you want to be the anti-birthday-cake-for-five-year-olds contingent, be my guest, but be aware that you’re a fucking Care Bear villain
I’m so sick and tired of the notion that because I’m TOO MENTALLY ILL TO WORK I should somehow be punished by not being allowed to run my own fucking life.
Like, how much more proof do you need that people like me are devalued, considered worthless. Worse than worthless. We’re drains on the system.
I have IBS. Right now? A lot of what I can eat without being in horrific pain on a daily basis is “unhealthy.” And even if it weren’t true, that doesn’t give anyone the right to tell me what I should be eating. Fuck off with the food policing. Adults who depend on government programs to survive are not CHILDREN.
And the actual children who rely on government programs to survive deserve to grow up without the crushing despair that comes from having your ever action scrutinized and judged JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE POOR.
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callanswall 