Rationality Quotes November 2012

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Here's the new thread for posting quotes, with the usual rules:

Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be voted up/down separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
Do not quote yourself
Do not quote comments/posts on LW/OB
No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

the meaning or source of the $ amounts if very unclear to me. Is there more on it somewhere?

$150/mo for SNAP (i.e., food stamps) is in the right ballpark; the average in 2011 was $133.85/mo.
$700/mo for SSI is an overestimate; the average benefit for those under 18 (i.e., "some high school") was $621.30/mo.
I couldn't find an average benefit estimate from the department of labor for unemployment insurance, but sufficiently many sources claim on the order of $300-500/week, possibly before taxes. $1500/mo is perhaps reasonable.
I don't know where he's getting the jail number from, but some random googling suggests that the average cost p

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