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FWIW - Welfare never paid enough to attract me to the lifestyle. I'm going to have to wait another three years before I can go on my welfare system consisting of a pension, social security, Medicare and a part time job. I am looking forward to having some time to study instead of commute.
Besides, everyone on welfare is not competing with the rest of us for the few jobs remaining in our outsourced economy.
[quote]Welfare is a means of getting on your feet, not a way of life! [/quoote]
No, The Middle Ages are over and Dracula is dead. Welfare is not a way of getting people "on their feet". It is a way if imparting normal dignity to people who have no feet.
We are all different. Some people are not as GOOD as you are, and will never be as successful as you are, but are equally as deserving of a dignified lifestyle, and all that our wealthy society can do to ensure that dignity for people who are unable to earn it ln their own. And their innocent children.
Even if you did want to get people on their feet, the way to do that is not to force them as quickly as possible into minimum wage drudgery, but to make public assets available for them to care properly for their children, get needed health care, accumulate a sense of self-respect, educate themselves to the full extent of their capabilities, and stop stomping on their fingers as they cling to the precipice.
While I do understand what you are saying I think you are scapegoating people on food Stamps. I work in a grocery store and I think this is silly to expect people on food stamps to act "benath us" or something. Are they supposed to dress in rags and kneel down and thank us mighty tax payers? Are they no allowed to eat those "fancy" foods just peanut butter sandwiches or something? They are usually given a certain amount of money and they can spend it as they choose. WIC vouchers are different. As far as fancy clothes how am to know they are not gifts etc. Who am I to be going around judging people like you seem to feel is our right.
Some people are not as GOOD as you are, and will never be as successful as you are, but are equally as deserving of a dignified lifestyle
There are altogether too many instances of those on welfare living a "more dignified lifestyle" than those that pay for it. That is where something is wrong. Why are people who are "unsuccessful" paid to stay home having more discretionary money than those working for a living?
It is doubtful that any change can come to the system though. Politicians would be run out of office on a rail by their constituents.
Why are people who are "unsuccessful" paid to stay home having more discretionary money than those working for a living?
.
I seriously doubt that you would be able to present me with an example of an American who is paid more in social benefits than the amount of money that you earn by working at your job.
There is no country in the world, no matter how despicably and shamefully socialist, in which people who do not work receive as much discretionary income as those who do. Nobody has ever asked for such a situation. Please try to limit your remarks to some visible reality.
Not even close for me. That is why I keep doing what I do. I need more money than is available on any welfare system. In fact I am going to use my retirement income to bankroll me while I develop a business in the alternate energy field. When it becomes successful, I will not mind if some of the profit is used to support less fortunate people on the welfare rolls.
^^^ AGREED!!! And it's why it's so very important NOT to sign the wrong version of the health care reform bill into law. There is no simple fix for bad legislation.
I seriously doubt that you would be able to present me with an example of an American who is paid more in social benefits than the amount of money that you earn by working at your job.
There is no country in the world, no matter how despicably and shamefully socialist, in which people who do not work receive as much discretionary income as those who do. Nobody has ever asked for such a situation. Please try to limit your remarks to some visible reality.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Ye gods, I am so tired of the bitter, angry middle class castigating, demeaning, and dehumanizing the poor for being poor.
These judgmental people should try volunteering--when they're not thanking their lucky stars they didn't lose their own jobs and homes in the economic crisis like so many others in the bitter, angry middle class. They might find that the people they suspect of cheating the system have stories to tell, stories that would show them just how quick and wrong they are to judge people they don't even know.
Every day I am disgusted as to what I see going on here on Long Island. I am a middle class American citizen. I do not receive any government assistance. I work hard for everything that I have, and I understand the value of a dollar. Welfare is a means of getting on your feet, not a way of life! Now I am not talking about EVERYONE on welfare. There are many people on public assistance who use it how it is meant to be used - as a hand to help you up when you are down. Unfortunately, the welfare system is flawed and therefore abused.
When I go food shopping I look for items on sale, purchase in bulk, & buy non brand name items to get the most for my money. I have noticed customers with gold chains & these fancy new expensive cell phones on line paying with food stamps. Not only that, their carts are filled with all NAME BRAND items regardless of if they are on sale or not. Steaks, candy, cookies, soda ect without regards to price. Many times I have been approached by a person offering to sell me food stamps for 50% cash. What about the drug addicts that receive all these benefits? They get health care, schooling, all kinds of public assistance, even DENTAL! I see many drug addicts on welfare who use all of that money on drugs, have no food in the house, no clothes for their kids yet nothing is done. After making several phone calls about a family with kids in a very unhealthy environment I asked the State employee about issuing drug tests. I was told that it was too costly to drug test everyone on public assistance and also an INVASION of their PRIVACY!!! Are you kidding me? They are being supported by the taxpayers & we're worried about invasion of privacy?!? What about protecting an investment or looking out for the innocent children being neglected and abused? A neighbors 3 year old child was walking 2 houses down from where they lived. He wanted to be with mommy who walked down the block & no one else in the house was watching him as he ran right out the front door! This was not the first time this has happened and there has been complaints filed yet nothing has changed.
Over the summer, president Obama issued $200 for every child living in a household on welfare. This was in the form of $200 per child being put onto their EBT card. Most kids from families NOT on welfare that DO NOT spend $200 on school supplies. This one family in particular, with 4 eligable children, received a total of $800. The mother then went down to a church where she received a voucher for the thrift store AND school supplies. The youngest of the children received NOTHING. The other 3 children each got $30 to spend, plus a couple of school books. Think back to the end of the summer. I find it kind of ironic that after that money was given, the amount of old tv sets & empty new TV boxes I saw in the trash.
I know of THREE families all on welfare, & all living in the same house. NONE of them work! They live in a very nice house. They receive help from the state with the rent on the house, & they also rent the house out to the 2 other families! All three families are on welfare but the other 2 families use the address of family members which is never investigated or verified. To top it off, all THREE families receive a fuel voucher - yet 2 weeks ago they called asking to borrow money because they were OUT OF FUEL. For TWO days they had no heat or hot water. There are 8 children from the age of 2 - 13 in that house! (Not to mention 6 adults & 3 children over 18). I failed to mention that 8 people in that house smoke cigarettes & 7 have cell phones. One person even has 2 cell phones. Mind you, very nice phones at that.
So you mean to tell me that the children have to suffer with NO HEAT & HOT WATER because they cannot afford oil yet they all have a full pack of smokes & a fancy new phone?!??!?!
Something is seriously wrong with the system. Where is the incentive for these people to go out & get a job?
You should record yourself saying this stuff and then listen to it.
First, what you don't know about drug addiction is a LOT. It is a health problem. You do no one any good by passing your moral judgments on addicts. To hear your rant, you'd think that anyone who ever got addicted to a drug is a bad, evil, rotten beast who should never have compassion, never get help, and be thrown in jail forever and ever because they are BAD BAD EVIL BAD people.
Get a grip. There are plenty of people who you and others with vanilla-coated, sheltered little bourgeois mindsets would probably consider to be from "good" backgrounds who get addicted to drugs and lose everything. And you would have them lose yet more and be tossed in the garbage. To hear your view, you'd punish people for having a disease. It seems that all you want is to get them out of your precious little sight. Ain't gonna happen. That's lesson 1.
Lesson 2: "Good" backgrounds don't even matter. For all you know, these people are the children of addicts, and were molested, beaten, and otherwise abused, and instead turned to drugs to cope. Bad choice, perhaps, but it happened and you then denying them health care--which, incidentally would help them get OFF the drugs--is going to make the situation better...how? Hint: It's not.
You know three families on welfare who live in one house? Really? Would YOU like to live in one house with two other families? And how do you know about this situation? Are you looking in their windows? Are you talking to them about their lives? How do you even know they are on welfare? How do you know they aren't just very poor, and an extended family?
Frankly, it's nonsense like what you've spouted here that serves only to make the problem worse. Your ranting is EXACTLY the kind of self-righteous verbal diarrhea that diminishes human beings and contributes to a societal divisiveness that fosters everything from class warfare to crime. You're more interested in punishing people than in solving the problem, and you know what? The world needs that like a hole in the head.
Stop presuming to know everyone else's situation. And I know you'll never believe this in a million years, but that could be you or someone you love one day. It's easy to vomit up hate and vitriol until it happens to you.
Last edited by Yzette; 02-09-2010 at 10:27 AM..
Reason: Because *self-righteousness* should be a crime.
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Welfare System HAS to change
