People call me a pessimist because I’m not delusionally optimist about the world economy. Our governments are so screwed up, there doesn’t seem to be much hope of actually fixing the problems.
Economics say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The government doesn’t understand this. The government is dishing out random lumps of cash to incompetent people who are poor for a reason. No. Seriously. Like “welfare debit cards” that work in … casinos.
In California, welfare recipeints are given debit cards. Read that again. Debit cards. What makes it worse? Those debit cards work in Casinos. I kid you not:
“California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found.
The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.
State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards.”
The fact that welfare exists for able-bodied males is bad enough. The fact that welfare debit cards exist sounds like a bad conservative joke. The fact that those things work at casinos is why I’m not bullish on the US economy. I’m investing in gold, agriculture, and guns.
Good luck, America — I’ve given up hope.
Tags: contrarian investing, economics, inflation, politics, welfare, welfare debit cards