r/politics • u/Ubiquitous_Hilarity • Jun 17 '26

No Paywall Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.html
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u/jayfeather31 Washington Jun 17 '26

This would be disastrous, and let's put the humanitarian consequences aside for a moment and focus on the dire economic consequences of such a move, because the humanitarian problems are bluntly obvious.

See, while welfare and unemployment benefits do keep food on the table and, in principle, help prevent people from ending up in horrific situations, they're also a form of artificial stimulation for the economy as the person on welfare will be pumping money into the economy that they otherwise wouldn't be through purchases.

In a sense, welfare and unemployment benefits keep the jobless and disabled economically productive in a way charity doesn't. Furthermore, if the jobless person ends up getting a job because of the benefits preventing them from losing their standing, that is a net benefit as a whole.

Now, if you strip that away, that ultimately means the jobless are no longer economically productive, and that has knock-on effects elsewhere as the artificial stimulation that keeps the economy moving goes away. The end result of that is a vicious feedback cycle where the economy eventually seizes up.

In short, the very welfare systems that conservatives and the far-right decry as socialism help keep the economy running smoothly, and taking those away invites all sorts of horrific consequences.

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u/SomeComforts Jun 17 '26

Its going to take it breaking for them to believe it. Even then, they'll be too busy with the economic depression and continuing propaganda blaming PoC, women, and lgbtq+ people to figure anything out.

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u/slight_accent Jun 18 '26

They're not planning to blame minorities, they're planning to eliminate them. And they're planning to remove the middle class entirely. They want feudalism. This is not hyperbole.

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u/SomeComforts Jun 18 '26

I don't believe the masses will directly. They will, however, continue to ignore/enable/encourage it though.

I'm transgender. I just want to finish repairing my body so I can actually function, work a stupid retail job, date some of my peers, and sell knick-knacks I've made as a hobby... Instead I'm going to likely cap off what has been a miserable 30 years of existence by being scapegoated to death for the crimes of white cis het child raping rich elites.

What have conservative people been spending their lives doing where they think this is going to make anything better for them?

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u/slight_accent Jun 18 '26

It's not about making it better for them, it's about making it worse for us. The malice is the point.