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Jan. 10th, 2013 10:29 amHere's another problem that occurred to me that comes with the belief that people receiving government assistance should not be allowed to buy alcohol or cigarettes.
It seems to me that this sort of restriction (you cannot use your money for X because it's not really "yours") could be applied to people like me who receive Pell grants to attend college. Like welfare, these are monies paid to people based on an evaluated need for funds to enable the pursuit of higher education. What if the government (or other stakeholder I suppose) looked at the situation and decided college students who receive Pell grants may not purchase alcohol or cigarettes? (Or what if they disallowed them from making other discretionary expenditures like, for example, political contributions? That's a little different, but still falls into the same category I think.)
Anyway, if a set of restrictions is ok for one group (people receiving welfare) and not for another group (students receiving Pell grants), why is that the case? (I don't think it's an appropriate restriction for either group myself.)
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(I should note that I meant to say that like welfare, these are monies paid to people based on an evaluated need, but not to imply that welfare is intended to enable higher education ans I mistakenly implied there with my poor sentence construction. But hopefully that will be obvious to most readers.)
It seems to me that this sort of restriction (you cannot use your money for X because it's not really "yours") could be applied to people like me who receive Pell grants to attend college. Like welfare, these are monies paid to people based on an evaluated need for funds to enable the pursuit of higher education. What if the government (or other stakeholder I suppose) looked at the situation and decided college students who receive Pell grants may not purchase alcohol or cigarettes? (Or what if they disallowed them from making other discretionary expenditures like, for example, political contributions? That's a little different, but still falls into the same category I think.)
Anyway, if a set of restrictions is ok for one group (people receiving welfare) and not for another group (students receiving Pell grants), why is that the case? (I don't think it's an appropriate restriction for either group myself.)
---
(I should note that I meant to say that like welfare, these are monies paid to people based on an evaluated need, but not to imply that welfare is intended to enable higher education ans I mistakenly implied there with my poor sentence construction. But hopefully that will be obvious to most readers.)
