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Well I am throwing myself into the fire with this post, but I have seen about the last inaccurate and fabricated "Welfare Queen" post than I can handle.
This anti welfare attitude and villainization of the poor is WRONG.
I lived in poverty most of my childhood. My mother left my abusive father when I was one and worked two jobs to survive. Even with those two jobs, she would have qualified for welfare and food stamps. But she was too proud to do so. Thus, I lived on ramen noodles and hot dogs for most of my childhood. I was underweight and malnourished. There were more times than I care to remember that I went to bed hungry. The only decent meal I got was at school...when my mother could afford it. She also refused reduced or free lunches, which she would have qualified for. Usually, I got a PB&J and carrots and was starving by dinner time. Then I got a small serving of hamburger helper. I also didn't see doctors for most of my childhood because my mother refused to use medicaid. I am still dealing with health issues due to that.
My SO's parents were the same. They were poor and could not afford very much food, but refused food stamps. His father gardened and that was what they ate most of the time. At one point, his father made my SO eat his own vomit after he threw up a pepper because they were so desperate to not waste food.
And the reason for this and why so many children are currently going hungry (or without decent shelter or health care) in this country is because there are still tons of people who are too proud to take assistance when they need it. And it because of this prevalent attitude that people who use government assistance are worthless!!
And with this, there are people who would qualify for assistance, but choose not to do so simply because they are too proud and don't want to be "one of those people." Then they are resentful of the people who actually take advantage of the benefits they are LEGALLY entitled to and use that to push an agenda against welfare and spread myths about people who use welfare.
IT IS WRONG. You are helping to perpetuate suffering, including your own.
Also: don't give me the old, "poor people are fat in America!!" I would have been fat eating hot dogs, ramen noodles, PB&Js, and hamburger helper too if I had a different body type and metabolism. I would have still been undernourished.
You seem to have pulled, or tugged by your mother, out of the, "I lived in poverty most of my childhood", plight in life.
I give you my heartiest congratulations. A job well done as they say.
Unfortunately, way too many DON'T get out. Notice I didn't say, "nobody ever gets out" as you seem to imply.
There are WAY too many "welfare queens". If you deny their existence is to deny reality.
I agree with you that are a lot of people who could get assistance but, don't.
The down side is, there are a whole lot more that do accept it.
Assistance is meant to be just that, to assist you UNTIL you get yourself back on your feet, not a permanent lifestyle.
Way to many getting assistance make NO attempt to get out of their situation.
Most, because they never finished high school, are unemployable in anything but minimum wage, IF they work at all.
There are success stories of people getting of welfare and becoming very successful. Just not enough.
You speak from experience. So do I. I worked in the gov't housing projects and the worse parts of Washington, D.C. Maybe where you lived wasn't like these areas. I don't know.
I can tell you that most of the women WERE very overweight and the men were of normal build. Why, I don't know. It just is.
Abuse in the systems are rampant and the recipient know how to scam the system. The officals don't care.
When you have 15-17 year old mothers on welfare living in gov't housing or gov't subsidized housing living the same life their mothers, grandmothers and grandmothers do, there is a BIG problem.
As a consrvative, I am ALL for helping those in need but, it is a 2 way street. THEY have to be willing to TRY and get out themselves.
If you can't find a job in the USA, you need to go (back) to college.
In Communism it was against the law to be without a job. No excuse, jobs are there even though you may feel you aren't getting what you think you deserve (that's the story of Capitalism)
Can you provide proof that the "jobs are there"? Meaning jobs which will pay someone enough to feed their family and provide shelter as well.
You seem to have pulled, or tugged by your mother, out of the, "I lived in poverty most of my childhood", plight in life.
I give you my heartiest congratulations. A job well done as they say.
Unfortunately, way too many DON'T get out. Notice I didn't say, "nobody ever gets out" as you seem to imply.
There are WAY too many "welfare queens". If you deny their existence is to deny reality.
I agree with you that are a lot of people who could get assistance but, don't.
The down side is, there are a whole lot more that do accept it.
Assistance is meant to be just that, to assist you UNTIL you get yourself back on your feet, not a permanent lifestyle.
Way to many getting assistance make NO attempt to get out of their situation.
Most, because they never finished high school, are unemployable in anything but minimum wage, IF they work at all.
There are success stories of people getting of welfare and becoming very successful. Just not enough.
You speak from experience. So do I. I worked in the gov't housing projects and the worse parts of Washington, D.C. Maybe where you lived wasn't like these areas. I don't know.
I can tell you that most of the women WERE very overweight and the men were of normal build. Why, I don't know. It just is.
Abuse in the systems are rampant and the recipient know how to scam the system. The officals don't care.
When you have 15-17 year old mothers on welfare living in gov't housing or gov't subsidized housing living the same life their mothers, grandmothers and grandmothers do, there is a BIG problem.
As a consrvative, I am ALL for helping those in need but, it is a 2 way street. THEY have to be willing to TRY and get out themselves.
How about some numbers to support all these ^^^ assumptions?
So you really don't have any interest in actually solving the problem, do ya? Your entitlement mentality is worse than those people who you railed about in your first post. Congratulations for compromising your entire argument, probably without even knowing it.
People who truly need it should be just as outraged at the people who are abusing it. Do people think this lady with 15 kids is right. She said someones got to be held accountable, someone's got to pay.
How about the people using welfare to buy booze and go to strip clubs. How do you justified this?
What is this the third time that you posted the same example
So you really don't have any interest in actually solving the problem, do ya? Your entitlement mentality is worse than those people who you railed about in your first post. Congratulations for compromising your entire argument, probably without even knowing it.
What are you even talking about? What is wrong with expecting that tax dollars intended to help create jobs should do just that? I support small businesses and worker owned coops that create jobs without costing tax payers billions of dollars.
OP, I appreciate and agree with your post, but right-wingers are sociopaths who can't even spell empathy, hence all the anti-social safety net posts. I don't care if sociopaths post, just care about keeping them away from the controls. That they do not operate heavy machinery, take their meds, etc.
Stop being so hostile, we're not going to take your public assistance away from you.
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