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yep. I see this a lot. I mean they hand these medications out like candy, it seems like all these children have ADHD, my nephew has been put on this medication and does not need it, along with ALL his brothers and sisters. They are either sleeping all the time or having terrible mood swings. Their mom gets a lot of extra money since her children are considered special needs.
Big-Pharm is really pushing a lot of poison pills to the American people , unfortunately, -and not just the poor!
-I used to be on some of those med's and have been doing much better since I QUIT!
Once again, New Mexico ranks at the bottom of the list when it comes to children.
As a public school Math teacher I can say that a lot of it is the prevailing attitude among people in New Mexico, of ALL ages mind you, that education doesn't matter. When you see that overall, jobs don't seem to require higher education and actually seem to penalize you for going straight from high school to college instead of finding a job right out of high school and keeping lo all these 20+ years, then it's no wonder people there have no hope for education. With no hope for education there isn't any incentive for girls to stay in school, crack open a book, do anything but put out so that they can have babies so the State will support them because after all, after they're 18 and legally adults they're going to get thrown out of the house and onto the streets if they haven't been already - that way of life is the prevailing mentality in New Mexico everywhere but Los Alamos where the parents are more likely to be educated because they're Federal government scientists making atomic bombs. Other than having at least one PhD in a science and perfect credit from no student loans to pass the Federal background check -- everyone else higher educated is screwed by the job market. With that as a reality, it's no wonder New Mexicans who do want something more than state-supported early childbearing leave the state in droves.
I've met New Mexico natives who actually grew up there who did graduate high school and qualify for better educational institutions than the UNM, in other places like at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, etc. They go AWAY to college for a reason.
I can't get them to crack open a Calculus or Physics book if they don't think they'll "go anywhere" with it.
Big-Pharm is really pushing a lot of poison pills to the American people , unfortunately, -and not just the poor!
-I used to be on some of those med's and have been doing much better since I QUIT!
Also in New Mexico it doesn't help matters that these pills are completely FREE (well, subsidized by what little of the population does actually work and pay taxes).
Unfortunately, this would be a paperwork nightmare and would end up being just about impossible. However, from the states I know of, food stamps and the stereotypical "welfare check" are kept separate, often people receiving both. The food stamps, which is now a credit card, has restrictions on it. You could make this extremely restrictive (i.e. currently alcohol and tobacco are no-nos, and maybe candy too, I can't remember. You could ban soda and chips I imagine). Most states also have programs for paying the rent, as well, although in Michigan (at least) you have to rent from an approved landlord. Maybe states should go into more specialized programing like the rent and food programs, including gas cards for certain individuals as well (or public transit tokens), limiting the time on welfare for a certain time, like another poster stated. Maybe if you severly limit the "welfare check", you could include a slight "bonus" for Christmas time. The problem is balancing budget concerns with the fact that we are playing with children's lives here. They didn't ask to live like this.
MN and MI have rules where you have to be looking for work on a weekly basis in order to receive benefits. Its a positive start, however people can get around it, plus it rules out parents who want to go to school/get specialized training so that they aren't always on the verge of financial diaster. However, MI must have a grace period. We were on food stamps for a few months before I was able to find work (husband was in school). I was actively looking for work, but I don't remember having to report it, yet I do remember people at the MichiganWorks! center having to fill out something to report that they were looking.
I understand that there are people that stay on welfare, but I have never, ever met any of them. I have known a lot of people, including my family, that state assistance helped stay afloat when things were looking dim. It has helped keep my kids healthy when we couldn't get jobs with insurance. We didn't apply for food stamps until months of searching for a job and going through our entire savings and eating beans and rice for way too long. During this time, I didn't own a cell phone, a new car, and only our son got a Christmas present that year. So how many people abuse the system? How many actually need it and end up leading productive lives because of it?
Not everyone who is on welfare is NOT looking for work, people. In New Mexico there's a horrific lack of truly "entry level" work that doesn't require passing credit checks (to make sure you're not drowning in student loans from, horrors, COLLEGE debt) ridiculously sensitive drug tests that even rule you out if they detect ASPIRIN or TYLENOL in your system (from the lab techs doing the thing being so incompetent they can't tell the difference on the molecular level), requiring "recent, stable verifiable work history" so, again, no recent college grads who were, oh say living on student loans, need apply............and yada yada yada. There's a lot of all THAT in the job market in New Mexico and it's not, as some uneducated New Mexican natives seem to say, because all jobs there "require" at least one PhD in a scientific discipline. It's that the ones that don't, are that bloody picky. It's less so than other states, but still exists. The state recently had to enact a law against credit checking for employment.
As far as 'welfare" pregnancy is concerned I have a couple of comments. First is women of that age are physically, emotional and hormonally preset to have kids. That is not their fault but we have made it their responsibility. It takes two to tango so I suggest the male involved be made to pay child support or marry the chick. "Shotgun" marriages were once quite common and reviving the practice may be a good idea. Teaching the kids how babies are made is a better idea. Providing a reasonably prosperous future for the kids that does not involve either babies or a PhD is an even better idea.
Most of you condemn welfare but, as New Mexico, heads the list of states that receive more Federal spending than they pay in taxes (2:1), you should consider just who is receiving this money. Some kids may be on welfare but the federal laboratories, military bases, and much of the agricultural and mining industry, and their neighboring towns, certainly are.
Instead of the myriad of local, state and federal welfare agencies and programs I favor a simple reverse income tax set at $500 per month per individual and dependant with no income tax until total income exceeds $18,000 per year. The "welfare" recipient receives a direct deposit in a bank account. If they run out of money before the next check they will learn to be careful.
Once again, New Mexico ranks at the bottom of the list when it comes to children.
We can all take these studies seriously or we can take them for what they are worth, so often they are based on 1/2 truths. Yes, it is true, there are many unwed mothers who are in their mid teens living in NM. You see this a lot in rural states, and this will always be a problem in less populated states. Without a lot of industry, there are not a lot of jobs, and when kids don't finish, even high school, decent jobs are hard to find. Remember, also, there is a culture that needs to be considered: Some of these young girls are raised to think being a woman means being a mommy and the guys are taught, being a daddy makes you a man. No one considers who will raise these kids.
We lived, just south of ABQ for 7 years and we saw so much of this. There were certain pockets, near nice housing developments, I will add, that reminded me of 3rd World living.
I don't think this will ever change, I just wish it could be changed. It is like, say, India, the problems there have always been there and always will.
I will add one more comment to this: like it or not and I know this isn't PC, but there are a lot of these people who really are lazy This isn't all of them by anymeans, but we did see it.
Not everyone who is on welfare is NOT looking for work, people. In New Mexico there's a horrific lack of truly "entry level" work that doesn't require passing credit checks (to make sure you're not drowning in student loans from, horrors, COLLEGE debt) ,
From my experience in recruiting and staffing, we only used credit checks to verify employment through social security contributions. This helped to sort out applicants who weren't being honest on their resumes and were leaving out prior employers and gaps in employment. We would of turned down an overwhelming majority of applicants if we made hiring decisions based on income/debt ratio. Never once was an applicant flagged for debt or low beacon scores.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GregW
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Most of you condemn welfare but, as New Mexico, heads the list of states that receive more Federal spending than they pay in taxes (2:1), you should consider just who is receiving this money. Some kids may be on welfare but the federal laboratories, military bases, and much of the agricultural and mining industry, and their neighboring towns, certainly are.
I'm glad someone has mentioned this. Just because you work at a lab doesn't mean your not on the government teet, and part of the problem as well. The money going to the poor pales in comparison to whats funneled to the military industrial complex.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nmnita
We can all take these studies seriously or we can take them for what they are worth, so often they are based on 1/2 truths. Yes, it is true, there are many unwed mothers who are in their mid teens living in NM. You see this a lot in rural states, and this will always be a problem in less populated states. Without a lot of industry, there are not a lot of jobs, and when kids don't finish, even high school, decent jobs are hard to find. Remember, also, there is a culture that needs to be considered: Some of these young girls are raised to think being a woman means being a mommy and the guys are taught, being a daddy makes you a man. No one considers who will raise these kids.
We lived, just south of ABQ for 7 years and we saw so much of this. There were certain pockets, near nice housing developments, I will add, that reminded me of 3rd World living.
I don't think this will ever change, I just wish it could be changed. It is like, say, India, the problems there have always been there and always will.
I will add one more comment to this: like it or not and I know this isn't PC, but there are a lot of these people who really are lazy This isn't all of them by anymeans, but we did see it.
IMHO, it's a result a populous existing with not much hope for the future. In a perfect world we could tie subsidies into results to attempt to break the generational cycle at some point. For example: Tie in welfare and housing subsidies to academic performance. Sounds cruel at first, but will get the parents involved in their kids lives because THEIR interests depends on it.
In Alabama, the unofficial state motto is "Thank God for Mississippi". We'll be glad to share the motto with New Mexico. Poor states have a lot of challenges.
From my experience in recruiting and staffing, we only used credit checks to verify employment through social security contributions. This helped to sort out applicants who weren't being honest on their resumes and were leaving out prior employers and gaps in employment. We would of turned down an overwhelming majority of applicants if we made hiring decisions based on income/debt ratio. Never once was an applicant flagged for debt or low beacon scores.
I'm glad someone has mentioned this. Just because you work at a lab doesn't mean your not on the government teet, and part of the problem as well. The money going to the poor pales in comparison to whats funneled to the military industrial complex.
IMHO, it's a result a populous existing with not much hope for the future. In a perfect world we could tie subsidies into results to attempt to break the generational cycle at some point. For example: Tie in welfare and housing subsidies to academic performance. Sounds cruel at first, but will get the parents involved in their kids lives because THEIR interests depends on it.
rant/off
There are a lot of things that might sound cruel and for that reason most will never become law: maybe this is too bad.. There should be a way to help families break the cycle. If something like you are suggesting would work, isn't it worth a try? I know the answer, no one would ever even attempt to try it.
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