I just had to make a post because I get a good chuckle every time we get into a cab with a driver that is pretty chatty and needs to vent. The conversation almost always goes to politics. Here's what the cab drivers lament about most in my experience. If they lose their job, there's no government assistance. They are pretty envious of the unemployment benefits we get in the States. By the way, I'm always impressed with how much these cab drivers know about our government and systems.
So I asked the driver what do you do if you lose your job. He pretty much said you borrow and live off your relatives until they don't like you anymore and hopefully by then you have a job. I got a good laugh. I tried to tell him that our unemployment and welfare system has a lot of corruption and costs the taxpayers a lot of money. But he wasn't convinced. Plus, I told him we have people living on the street or under bridges and begging on our highways. You never see that in Singapore and when I asked why, he said they send all the transients to a housing unit that is very low budget. He then said, they hide them and don't tell anyone about it (with a smile). I had another good laugh, but he was probably serious.
I look forward to more interesting conversations with the locals. Can't get any better than a chatty cabby.
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