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Discussion » Questions » Life and Society » The flag of Robert Heinlein's moon colony carried the acronym TANSTAAFL.

The flag of Robert Heinlein's moon colony carried the acronym TANSTAAFL.

That's the acronym for "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." How do you feel about people who expect handouts? Parasites or just people who are down on their luck?

Posted - January 17, 2017

Responses


  • 184
    In my humble opinion, there is a big difference between those who are truly, through no fault of their own, down and out as opposed to others who expect a handout for doing nothing, absolutely nothing. I have even seen people who can't be bothered with filling out "paperwork" for social services but still expect a check. Unbelievable. I would like to see those who receive unemployment checks be required to work in "public work projects" such as road building, street sanitation, etc while they are collecting checks and waiting for their next full time job. 
      January 17, 2017 4:06 PM MST
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  • 184
    In my humble opinion, there is a big difference between those who are truly, through no fault of their own, down and out as opposed to others who expect a handout for doing nothing, absolutely nothing. I have even seen people who can't be bothered with filling out "paperwork" for social services but still expect a check. Unbelievable. I would like to see those who receive unemployment checks be required to work in "public work projects" such as road building, street sanitation, etc while they are collecting checks and waiting for their next full time job. 
      January 17, 2017 4:06 PM MST
    2

  • We have a pretty good safety net in Oz but, of course, there are a lot of exploiters. And, yes, there are rules about who is eligible and what they have to do to qualify. Some people who can't find full time jobs have a range of "volunteer" work they can do. 
      January 17, 2017 4:11 PM MST
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  • 46117
    There are three kinds of people in the world.  

    Givers
    Takers
    and people who don't know how to mind their own business about what other people do or don't do.

    I am a giver, I never get sapped by takers and I feel that if it is not being used by anyone else and it will get thrown away anyway?  HEY?  MAYBE we should feed people who are starving to death?

    This is the kind of nonsense that those people?  The entitled people who thinks the world owes them a living because they earned more than other people?  You know the ones, mommy and daddy supported all their lives?    Those people oftentimes are far less deserving than Joe Blow who spends his days begging on street corners because he doesn't have the tools nor education to make anything decent out of his life.   So, watch out who you are more worried for, Donald Trump's bank account or the millions on earth who don't even know what a bank is for This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at January 17, 2017 5:42 PM MST
      January 17, 2017 4:14 PM MST
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  • Thanks, Sharonna. :)
      January 17, 2017 5:42 PM MST
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  • I've nothing intelligent or insightful to add on this. . lol not like me to be lost for words eh? But I did want to say... I am a huge fan of Heinlein - think he gets a bit carried away at times but truly great.
      January 17, 2017 4:21 PM MST
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  • I went off him when I read some of his later books, but he's very quotable. He was the guy who advised us not to spoil our children's lives by making them too easy. (I think that was a prediction of "helicopter parenting".)
      January 17, 2017 5:43 PM MST
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  • 316
    Society has changed so much in the last 50 or 60 years.  A friend used to ride the rails back in the 1930's. He never "expected" a handout or free meal. When he was really down, and hungry, he would go into a diner, and order a cup of hot water (which was free). Then when nobody was looking add tomato ketchup to it to make himself some tomato soup. But at the same time he was ready to get thrown out.  Today people feel they are "entitled" to a handout. And you are a rotter if you don't give them one.
    Some do not want to work.. In Las Vegas we were going past a Casino/Hotel being constructed. Big sign "Help wanted, no experience needed"  and there was a fellow sitting on the curb in front of that sign ,with his own sign.. "Will work for food".. He did not want a job, just a free ride through life.
      January 17, 2017 5:09 PM MST
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  • One of my neighbours was a psychologist and he said that the acronym for such people is PITA and that stands for Pain in the Butt. 

    You sound as though speak from experience and certainly the guy with the sign is not rare. My own father lost his job during the Great Depression and pushed a wheel barrow across the Blue Mountains (where I now live) to prospect for gold. He found a little and sent home the money, but not enough to solve his problems. He managed to findn work about the time I was born. 
      January 17, 2017 5:46 PM MST
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  • 5455
    I have compassion for really unlucky people but some people are truly lazy or just really dumb like the guy in Maurice's post who was sitting in front of a help wanted sign with his own sign but the phrase There's no such thing as a free lunch just makes me roll my eyes.  It's way overused and some people just use it as a response to everything.


      January 17, 2017 7:43 PM MST
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  • Well said, Livvie. That's a nice avatar you're using. 
      January 17, 2017 10:26 PM MST
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  • 283
    I am all for helping someone who wants to help themselves. They have fallen on hard times and need help to get out of it. But I detest those that think they deserve something just because they came from a bad circumstance. In the US there are some families that have been a welfare for generations. Granted it is a small minority, but it happens. All they do is whine "woe is me.", "I didn't have a chance in life." I grew up right at the poverty line. We never went hungry, but we ate pancakes for dinner more often than we did steak. So I have no tolerance for those "woe is me types".
      January 17, 2017 8:17 PM MST
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  • I wouldn't feel like helping them, either. 
      January 17, 2017 10:27 PM MST
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