Are We Feeding the Poor People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Are We Feeding the Poor People - Essay Example The underlying reason for this has to do with my understanding that the vast majority of this 47% of individuals that Romney indicated were dependent and â€Å"lazy† would ultimately love to have an opportunity to provide for themselves; however, they simply do not have the ability to do so. In such a way, the following analysis will be concentric upon describing this problem from a more nuanced perspective and analyzing this broad and differentiated group in terms of the responsibilities that citizens have towards their fellow citizens and the overall impact of providing services to those that are incapable of providing for themselves. Further, to understand the problem, it is necessary to know who comprises this 47%. According to Mitt Romney, the 47% represents those individuals within the United States that are not required to pay federal income taxes. The majority of these are the low-income households; most of which earn less than $ 30,000 a year. Of these, many are willing to work hard and earn a living; however, they cannot find full time employment as a result of the abysmal state of the economy. As such, they are trapped in minimum wage jobs; oftentimes working as part time employees. Not considering income taxes, these individuals can barely feed the families and provide for the basic necessities of life. As can be seen, expecting these very individuals to pay income tax would dis-incentivize engaging with the workforce and created a situation in which these very individuals would be worse off working several part-time jobs then they would be drawing unemployment checks and other forms of government welfare assistance. As can immediately be seen, simply categorizing these individuals as â€Å"lazy† is a gross exaggeration and misunderstanding of the labor force and how it works. The fact of the matter is that these individuals are not lazy and have instead chosen to work