> If there is a job you are physically and mentally capable of doing, why should you not be forced into doing it instead of just sitting at home and expecting 'the system' to pay for you?
Yours is an entirely ideological point of view. There is no reason to believe people would just sit at home and wait for the system to pay them. Even if someone did just sit at home, you have to prove that that would be worse overall than having many others' needs ignored.
We already have a class of people who "sit" expecting the system to pay them: it's the rich. We already practice socialism for the rich, giving incredible amounts of public money to companies in tax cuts and subsidies, it's time we do socialism for the poor as well.
I'm not sure your "we" is the same as my "we". I live in an European "socialist" country with a well functioning healthcare and welfare system. I have lots of sympathy for people who are experiencing some downtime in their life. I understand that might not have been obvious from my comment.
I'm not sure I understand you when you say there is no reason to believe people are sitting at home waiting for the system to pay them. Considering we are talking about people who are unable to find a job and not willing to do the jobs that are available, who are healthy and not at home because of some condition - who exactly are we talking about?
Your last paragraph sounds very worrisome but not something I feel my "we" are experiencing. We do a lot of socialism for the poor and we tax our rich quite heavily. Not saying it couldn't be better, but I feel you're approaching this from a very US-centric point of view.
I tend to think internationally, so when I refer to "we" I mean pretty much everyone. I'm Italian anyway so I also live in the "socialist" Europe, nevertheless this year we gave away €50B in companies' subsidies and less than €10B in subsidies to citizens. At the same time the class divide grows wider, while most people this year struggle to even pay the bills. Perhaps you live in northern Europe, in that case your country definitely has higher standards of life, but I don't think north Europe is really representative of the world's situation.
Yours is an entirely ideological point of view. There is no reason to believe people would just sit at home and wait for the system to pay them. Even if someone did just sit at home, you have to prove that that would be worse overall than having many others' needs ignored.
We already have a class of people who "sit" expecting the system to pay them: it's the rich. We already practice socialism for the rich, giving incredible amounts of public money to companies in tax cuts and subsidies, it's time we do socialism for the poor as well.