5d ago

Young men are 'playing videogames all day' instead of getting jobs because they can mooch off of free healthcare, claims congressman

www.pcgamer.com Young men are 'playing videogames all day' instead of getting jobs because they can mooch off of free healthcare, claims congressman

To justify Medicaid cuts, House Speaker Mike Johnson says the healthcare program leads to "able-bodied young men" playing videogames instead of working.

Young men are 'playing videogames all day' instead of getting jobs because they can mooch off of free healthcare, claims congressman

135 comments

People are checking out because the middle class is non-existent. It doesn’t matter how hard you work - the the prospect of getting ahead, owning a home, retirement is out of reach for the vast majority of people.
People can work hard and stress themselves out or they can check out of the system and achieve largely the same result.
This is about the failures of late stage capitalism. To claim the issue is free healthcare is gaslighting.
- "Middle class" contrasts with "upper class" and "lower class", not with "ruling class" and "working class"; it's the wrong perspective.
  
  It may be today, but a strong middle class is what placates the working class. Give em something to shoot for so they won't shoot you.
- Gaslight
  Obstruct
  Project
- Time for another round of:
  “Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
  
  Waaaay ahead of ya haha
- This is about the ~~failures~~ successes of late stage capitalism
  FTFY

Oh sweet i didn't realize my healthcare covered video games

Is this free healthcare you speak of in the room with us right now?
- Is he mad that young adults can stay on their parents' health plan until age 26?
  
  Which the parents pay for.... They just don't know what words mean anymore.

Look up the book "Hell's Angel's" by Hunter Thompson.
There's a section in the book where he writes about the economics of being a hippie/biker/artist circa 1970.
A biker could work for six months as a Union stevedore and save up enough money to go on the road for two years. A part time waitress could support herself and her musician boyfreind.
- That's what these guys grew up seeing and reading, huh? So they're trying to govern with assumptions that have not held true for decades.
  
  No they are not governing. They are attempting to rule using rhetoric they know sticks with older generations. That's it. Just gotta keep people voting and they will say and do anything to get those votes.
  
  Nah, young folk these days just don't want to work. They need to buckle down, pull on the ol' bootstraps, and work a part time job at the factory while going to college. No reason that shouldn't support a family of 4 with a single income!
- Sounds awesome! Reminds me of a Chinese Buddhist couple who work a few months then travel a few months to temples
- I would take anything Hunter S. Thompson wrote with a massive grain of salt. He’s fun to read but gonzo journalism isn’t a great source for facts.
  
  First, he wrote the book in the 1970s. People would have noticed if he was wildly off base.
  Second, you can do a quick search and prove his numbers were correct.

free healthcare
does he think everyone in the US gets the same healthcare that congresspeople get?
- Probably.

Hey look, an "elite" with absolutely no concept of how actual reality works, who's just trying to stir up a base consisting of people with IQs smaller than their shoe size.
I promise you, if I could stay home all day and play video games by somehow using free healthcare, I'd be doing it.
- Dunno if it is satire, i honestly am struggling to tell these days, but there's a post that says this fucker routinely plays surgeon simulator while attending meetings....on twitch

Meanwhile: Politicians who never had a day of honest work their entire life.

Music is making younger generations lazy.
Nono, it's books.
Nono, it's film.
Nono, it's TV.
Nono, it's music again, but only certain kinds of music like rock and metal.
Nono, it's video games.
- Younger generation is lame. We were so awesome. Remember how awesome we were? Kids these days!
  
  And we've made their environment worst than ours and it's their fault.
  Fucking youngsters
- Those inane Shakespeare plays are making the world a dumber place!

This man literally needs his son the keep his porn habits in check, and he's whining about people playing video games...

And rich people don’t have jobs because they mooch off poor people.
Hypocrisy at its finest.

Adding my health Card number to my steam account payment method.
- If you choose to pay this way, you will no longer be given upfront prices on the steam store and several months or years later you will receive a bill from a debt collector to finally pay for your game. And it's going to be a lot more than you thought.
  
  Lol, sorry i forgot to put /s at the end ..

Young men who are capable of playing video games all day are likely depressed, and have a clinical problem. Our volition to be productive was demonstrated during the 2020 lockdown and the great resignation of 2021-22, in which young men (as with all other working demographics) learned:
They felt better in a non-toxic work environment
They couldn't couch potato for more than a week without getting fierce cabin fever, and
They got highly skilled when they were doing a thing they liked.
The ones who resigned from old jobs were the ones who were able to monetize their hobby enough to quit. Many more got productive, but didn't find something in their craft for which there was a ready market.
Speaker Johnson is a fierce MAGA and conforms to the common fascist trope of never speaking in good faith. See Sartre's antisemite quote.
With several perspectives including that crunch remains a thing in AAA game development, our ownership class and CEOs are less concerned about maximizing profits than they are being lords with a feif and peons (compulsory servitude).
Oh and death to all monarchists. Disney deaths preferred.

Where are they getting free healthcare from? I'd like it. Oh does Canada have this problem? No? Huh
- We still have widespread disengagement in Canada too because the problem isn’t the healthcare.
  The problem is wage suppression and corporate greed.

Please tell me more about this free healthcare

Theres nowhere in the country that has legitimate free healthcare, and only a small handful of states that have healthcare for those below the poverty line.
Where are these supposed young people just living it up off free healthcare?
- How do you not work and still have money for the Xbox subscription and steam sales?
  
  Or food or shelter or anything?

The amount of dirty looks I got today casually playing slay the spire on my steam deck as a 41 year old man in the waiting room of a medical facility was pretty impressive.
- Cmon they were just jelly u had a deck lol
  
  It's so sweet. I am bad at consoles and haven't owned one since Sonic made his debut but this thing rocks.
- I'd give you dirty looks as well if you weren't playing on A20 and fighting the heart
- They were wondering why you weren't playing Balatro.

So us person here. This free healthcare he speaks of is news to me.
- He gets free govt Healthcare and probably stays at home playing video games. It's all projection.
  
  With fascists every accusation is an admission

Free Healthcare ? In Amerikkka ?
Since when ?
- Only when you're so poor (earn less than 15k/yr out 21k a year in some states) not having it functionally costs more money, but only so long as you follow all the bureaucratic rules to continually prove eligibility.
  And don't forget, you still have to find healthcare providers that accept Medicaid, pay copays, etc.
  
  In some states they don't even have that. I've been seeking disability for six years in America for a partially broken back, with ten years of documented ongoing treatment at this point from childhood and my parent's medical coverage (I can walk, but I'm stooped most of the time and get to live with chronic pain, yippee) and because I couldn't get by on nothing, and got a part time gig that didn't cross the threshold I still got my benefits denied. So like, in all technicality, though I see myself as an able-bodied young man and pursue an active lifestyle to make sure my weight doesn't cause my spine to degrade and leave me fully paralyzed, I'm not even who this guy's talking about, and I can't get benefits through the current system. Now I'm just uninsured and planning to immigrate for education (and healthcare).
- Until you're 26 off your parents

Pretty rich coming from a guy who lets trump take every power congress is supposed to hold. WTF does he even do at work? If we stopped paying him, would anything at all happen? Every republican seems like a whiny crybullying grifter to me.

People turning to escapism because the world is shit?
FUCK THAT LET’S MAKE IT WORSE THEN.

Where are they getting the money for the games? Those are expensive as shit, I’m still making do with games I bought decades ago because I can’t afford new ones.
How are they eating? Food is fucking expensive, are they getting free food as well?
How are they paying rent? Have to have a roof over your head and electricity in your walls to play video games all day.
This mother fucker thinks all guys are like his son, lazy mother fuckers mooching off their parents. What a dumb, ignorant moron.
- I think he might be speaking about 16 year old boys. He seems mad that they're children instead of working father's.

Who eats healthcare?
- I go to the hospital to pick up my free aborted babies to turn into California cheeseburgers.
  
  Somehow, your statement is better than trump being president.

"No one has talked about cutting one benefit in Medicaid to anyone who's duly owed—what we've talked about is returning work requirements, so, for example, you don't have able-bodied young men on a program that's designed for single mothers and the elderly and disabled. They're draining resources from people,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson last week.
'Get fucked poors, sucks to suck when working full time still keeps you below the poverty line. Can't afford to pay for you lazy fucks to see a doctor when we've got rich people who need the money more'

Where can I get this free healtcare that pays your rent?
- By getting elected to Senate or Congress

Says republican who has access to healthcare.

This is rich coming from someone that has literally never worked a days labor in their lives.
Young men as a cohort have a 90% employment rate.

Decades pass, yet politicians keep using the same bullshit claims, just the sauce is slightly different.
Fuck Cheeto and the USA

how do i leech off of free healthcare that sounds really good
- Become a congressperson, they get Medicare for life just like every other citizen should have but don't because Congress will grant it to themselves but not everyone else. If it's good enough for them it should be good enough to cover us.
- Get elected to the US Congress. They don't do anything and get 6 figure salaries AND free Healthcare!
- Yeah how does that work? How do I get my Healthcare to pay my mortgage?
- Be disabled, be elderly, be a guy working multiple jobs and still not make enough to be above the poverty line.

Just got done paying all my bills and mortgage with my health insurance. 🙃🙃🙃

I would prefer to work a job than to grind in a videogame. Unfortunately, Americans live in a nation where bad working conditions, low pay, heavy competition, instability, and ghost jobs makes job seeking unpalatable.
American capitalism is a cancer.
- All capitalism is cancer.
  
  True. Even the Nordic Model nations are backsliding from what I hear. It is why I think that we need to try an wholly artificial economic system, with rules and principles. Similar to a Constitution's framework, but focused on providing for the wellbeing of all citizens.

You gotta be fucking kidding me. What sort of disconnected boomer statement is that!?
I hate using such terms as "boomer", but how else am I going to describe this?
I'm in Denmark, and I can just about get by on one job. I have friends from America struggling to make ends meet, and they're working TWO jobs!
So the fuck is this guy talking about!?
- I mean Republican assholes is a much better and more accurate adjective.
- They're close to saying the quiet part out loud here. The reason (one of them) universal healthcare gets so much pushback is because an employer provided healthcare is a major way to keep the working class in their place.
  I know so many people who have stayed in shitty abusive jobs because they can't lose the healthcare. Imagine if people could fuck off and decide to live a less resource intensive life? Would be terrible for the economy.
  I'm pissed at the state of ~~healthcare~~ health business in this (u.s.) country, and I think you should be too!
  
  I know so many people who have stayed in shitty abusive jobs because they can't lose the healthcare. Imagine if people could fuck off and decide to live a less resource intensive life? Would be terrible for the economy.
  Theres people that was scared of losing their jobs that they didnt disobey managment and leave the factory before it was washed away in the helene floods... many died. But dont worry, the family got a $100 walmart giftcard for compensation...

Putting aside the, "Everyone but an idiot knows the poor must be kept poor, or they will never be productive" logic, it's also just dumb as shit to claim that "able-bodied young men" are going to be super motivated to get off the couch for the sake of health insurance - not even real healthcare, we're talking about paying hundreds of dollars a month so that if you get sick you can "only" be saddled with a very high deductible.
I fucking hate these people's guts. Something something Luigi's Mansion.

Free healthcare doesn't pay rent or utilities. I would love to stay at home and play video games regardless of my healthcare status, but I simply couldn't afford to.

Sure. Let's just pretend video games are free. And so is healthcare. Also, how much health care does he think young people use? This is a stupid argument.

My brother I am going to find every outlet of escapism possible to cope with the reality that your generation had a massive part in creating. Sorry 💅

- I'm flabbergasted
  
  Didn't you know sex is bad? It's absolutely reprehensible and the only allowable exception is for the purposes of procreation, where you are allowed only to use the missionary position and your lawfully wedded wife is to be completely obscured by a blanket covering her entire body apart from a small hole in her crotch area. You can not look down or touch her body with your hands at any point, you should be reciting prayer the entire time and preferably keep one hand on the Bible during the whole process.
  All other ways to engage with sexual acts and sexuality are unnatural, ungodly and frankly disgusting.
- The lord needs to help these people. They're cooked.

What free healthcare? It's Murica...
- He has free healthcare. That's all he cares about.
  
  And if he is projecting like everything else in his life he is playing candy crush in his office right now.

I dunno. I'd be a lot more apt to go seek a job if the market for my desired career and skills wasn't currently being recklessly trashed. No point in taking a job offer knowing I'll be the new guy and the first to get let go when the inevitable cuts come due to government cutbacks, tariff damage, and a recession leading to more reductions. It's way easier to stay home and let the government, who carelessly took away my job, pay for me to play video games all day.

He knows this is false. It's bait, that even i see this time. There really is nothing to see here

Imagine living in a country that has turn to shit so long ago that you can't believe that it is possible for people can be motivated to work without resorting to the constant threat of being left to die if they don't.

this dude and his son monitor each other's devices to make sure they don't consume porn. i don't think he should be allowed to talk about literally anyone else's habits.
- this dude and his son monitor each other's main devices to make sure they ~~don't~~ have "proof" that they "don't" consume porn
  anyone that obsessive is addicted and has at a minimum one burner porn tablet lmfao

Lyin’ Mike at it again

No job, grind away the entire waking day with a low paying zero hours contract while filing job applications, No videogames, no relaxation, more stress, costs healthcare providers more
No job, spend some of the day working while filing job applications, Yes Videogames, relaxation, lower stress, costs healthcare providers less
Yet another case where if the politician seriously thought about the issue for just half a minute they'd realise their attitude makes no sense.
- Oh, he knows he’s completely full of shit. If you keep that in mind, his attitude makes perfect sense. Make up whatever bullshit he can to fake a justification to enrich his wealthy daddies.

Health care is a human right

When pasty rich worms like this spout this kind of exploiter class drivel it makes me want to punch them in the throat.

"I want to check that old building for treasure!" vs. "I want to check my son's porn usage".

Why is this specific to men? Are women not able to take advantage of these same programs? Are men having job placement issues where women are not?
What is the root cause of this? Since jobs and people have both existed for a looooooong time, I doubt this latest generation was just born lazy. What's the behind the scenes info here?
- the behind the scenes is that they made it the fuck up. Men 25-84 have about a 90% participation rate in the workforce.
  The only places where men are at low participation in the workforce is 16-19. He wants more children working.
  
  Ah, then the “free” healthcare is the healthcare they get because their parents pay for it. Covering kids is far from free. But it taps in to any rage parents may feel having to cover their kids even if they always argue with their kids. A lie that his base is happy to hear.
  
  Yes, working instead of going to college.
- He believes any woman not currently pregnant is an abomination unto nuggan

What country is he talking about? Cuz it sure as shit ain't this one

Since I am not from the us or ever been there, I do have a question: are there people that truly believe in this bullshit?
- Yes, but they get there "backwards".
  It's not like they believe healthcare is inherently demotivating, it's that they're already Red Team members, and "Healthcare and welfare breed moochers" is a Red Team belief, and since they're good Red Team members, they synthesize it into their belief system--despite the fact functionally no one rips off the healthcare system because, frankly, you have to have some kind of pathology to visit a doctor enough for fraud to be an issue.
  I mean "Oh noes, they're ripping off the healthcare systems by.. (checks notes) ..getting antibiotics for their earache!!" is not a thing. Ever.
  Everyone, even in countries with socialized medicine, avoids interactions with the healthcare system until they need to. I mean, do you you really want to recreationally get your throat swabbed? I'm sure there's four people on this planet of nine billion who get off on that, but that's it.
  Now, rich people, they come to this believe authentically. They hate public healthcare because a) they have to pay for it, and b) it's one less piece of leverage they have to keep people shackled to work. But make no mistake, they also suffer from the delusion, above.
- The answer is about half of them do and the other half don't and are there to fleece the first half. You see the same pattern with priests, where some of them are true believers and the rest are just there to devour the flock.
  In a crowd of 200 people, you are nearly guaranteed to have a sociopath without any kind of conscience. These people are more or less like sharks and move around and devour those around them without a second thought. It's a shame, because they are often the limiting factor to scaling any kind of human organization.
  So many of the rules and restrictions we have today are due to these people, and sadly, it's just part of the human condition.

135 comments