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Ken Burch

(50,254 posts)
Sat Feb 21, 2015, 10:34 PM Feb 2015

If Republicans are so big on "voluntarism", why do they make it so hard to volunteer?

The Republicans think we can cut most social programs and replace them with people working as volunteers to help those who need help(not that the GOP will admit that much of anyone DOES need help)

Yet the changes they have forced on the country since 1981 massively discourage people from doing that sort of volunteer work(which doesn't stop a lot of good people, both conservative, liberal, and radical)from doing what they can to help others anyway).

To be able to volunteer to help others, you need the enough free time to do so, and a stable enough life to be able to volunteer on a long-term basis without worrying about losing everything you have due to some short term gain-based decision by some corporate board that throws your own existence totally out of whack.

Economic policies that force people to work more hours to earn the same pay make it nearly impossible for a lot of people who would like to volunteer in their community to do so. If you're working 70 hours a week and you used to work 40 hours, you don't have the time or energy to help other people.

So does putting people out of work through outsourcing...when you can't support yourself or your family because your job has been moved to Mexico or India, you have to spend all your time trying to get any work you can-you don't have the option of helping out at the soup kitchen or building homes with Habitat for Humanity-and you might well be eating that soup and in need of a home for yourself.

If they really wanted to encourage voluntarism, wouldn't they support higher wages and job security so people actually could volunteer? Or are they just saying that no one below them on the food chain should ever be able to sleep?

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