Text 13873, 82 rader
Skriven 2007-04-23 18:37:03 av Carl (236.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: OT: Finesse contest finalists - thanks to all!
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"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:apfo23lk30hp5h9i2logce1rsb39v5ebns@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 18:09:19 -0500, "Carl" <cengman7@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>I don't have a problem with welfare, I have a problem with welfare
>>fraud...and there's a lot of it.
>>
>>Consider:
>>
>>Almost concurrently the Los Angeles Times, in an August 14, 1998, article,
>>reported an egregious instance of large-scale internal fraud by an 
>>employee
>>of the DPSS. Subsequent newspaper articles and television documentaries
>>further highlighted that instance and other potential and actual problems 
>>in
>>the operation of the DPSS. We also learned from preliminary interviews 
>>that
>>the potential for fraud, both external (recipient) and internal (staff),
>>that exists in the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services
>>is enormous. Further, based on extrapolated audit data obtained from two
>>other Southern California counties, the potential annual savings that may 
>>be
>>realized by Los Angeles County could exceed $500 million.
>>
>>(http://grandjury.co.la.ca.us/gjury99/REPORtgj-15.htm)
>>
>>That's just LA County.
>>
>>Figures that I've heard in the past have estimates of Welfare fraud 
>>anywhere
>>from 15-45%.  If we could work on reducing the fraud rather than simply
>>accepting it we could keep the money in the system and help people more
>>without increasing the governments annual seizure or earnings.
>
> Welfare is a small program, though: it doesn't cost much. The
> prosperous "steal" much more from the government -- 

Most of the other programs have a healthy share of fraud too. I recall 
reading of one program about a year ago with an estimated 67% fraud rate 
based on 5000 randomly chosen case follow ups.

There are plenty of other examples.  My understanding is that there's a very 
high rate of fraud in the Katrina relief money too.

If you have someone giving out huge amounts of money, you shouldn't be 
surprised when there are a lot of people willing to try to cheat to get some 
of it.  As someone I once met said "It's free money!"

I should note that it's not just in the US.  Australia has a much better 
program to track fraud of this type and the estimate I saw for Australia 
ranges between 35-50%.

> I put that in quotes, because there's nothing illegal about $1000 wrenches 
> or
> agribusiness subsidies.

I agree.  We should reduce or eliminate lots of subsidies... including those 
geared towards corn based ethanol.

> And that's one of the problems faced by the poor: sell cigarettes to
> children, and you're a pillar of the community; sell pot, and you're a
> crook.

These days it's rather the opposite. States are trying to make smoking 
illegal and legalize medical pot.

Carl




>
> -- 
> Josh
>
> "Wagner has wonderful moments, and dreadful quarters of an hour." - 
> Rossini
>
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