At what point is your definition of "discomfort" another person's definition of "poverty?" Discomfort today is poverty tomorrow, especially if the standard of living keeps going up.
this is a trick question and the fact that I do not have an answer is why I ultimately oppose the idea (everything else I can see the pros and cons going either way so I would want to see how they plays out in practice in our culture before I give judgement on if it is good or bad).
The reason it is a trick question is based on the following two real people I know. (I'm trying to hide as many details as I can, but these are real people so there isn't much I can do)
Person A was a straight-A student until she dropped out in 10th grade. Then she a few kids by different men - all losers who rarely held any sort of job (she dropped out before getting pregnant, but getting pregnant was her plan). In short the stereotypical image of "folks standing in a welfare line"
Person B was born with Downs Syndrome. He is assistant usher at the movie theater, a job he has held for years and does okay in, but when there are problems the head usher (some kid who has only worked there for 2 weeks) takes over.
When we are talking person A: she made her bad choices and I have no sympathy for them, she can live well below the poverty line. I make some different choices: when she dropped out her life was better (no school) than mine, but by choosing to continue in school I made my life better.
When we are talking person B: life is stacked against him. He was never able to amount to anything, but he has my full sympathies. I want him to have a few luxuries in life that he will never earn himself.
There are lots of other cases you can point to where ultimately I want to give a different answer on a case by case basis.
The reason it is a trick question is based on the following two real people I know. (I'm trying to hide as many details as I can, but these are real people so there isn't much I can do)
Person A was a straight-A student until she dropped out in 10th grade. Then she a few kids by different men - all losers who rarely held any sort of job (she dropped out before getting pregnant, but getting pregnant was her plan). In short the stereotypical image of "folks standing in a welfare line"
Person B was born with Downs Syndrome. He is assistant usher at the movie theater, a job he has held for years and does okay in, but when there are problems the head usher (some kid who has only worked there for 2 weeks) takes over.
When we are talking person A: she made her bad choices and I have no sympathy for them, she can live well below the poverty line. I make some different choices: when she dropped out her life was better (no school) than mine, but by choosing to continue in school I made my life better.
When we are talking person B: life is stacked against him. He was never able to amount to anything, but he has my full sympathies. I want him to have a few luxuries in life that he will never earn himself.
There are lots of other cases you can point to where ultimately I want to give a different answer on a case by case basis.