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Im on medicaid... I work the same as you do. Being on assistance is NOT the same as a criminal! How can you even begin to compare them???????
I dont like being on medicaid. I HATE IT. I cant get glasses for my daughter because theres such a crappy selection ( check my past threads on it). I cant go to any dr i may actually need to see. Insurance at work is way too expensive!! It would be almost 1/2 our income to pay for it! ( just to pay for it, not counting deductible, co pays, etc)
I didnt like being on foodstamps either. It wasnt just free food. It wasnt just pizzas and pop like people think, though i can spot someone on foodstamps a mile away buying that crap.
The only good, recent thing we were on was PIPP for electric. It is a percentage of income payment plan for a huge back bill we owed. Our bill stayed the same every month for a year so we could pay a percentage towards the old bill and pay it off. Id do that again if we needed it.
I DO go to the food pantry still because it helps stretch the last week or so of the month with staples.
It is not a walk in the park. Its not all free cable and hummers in the driveway. People DO WORK and try to better themselves. Maybe only a few and maybe they dont really talk about it but it does happen.
1) It is a blatant myth that most of them eat steak every night. or any night.
2) It is a blatant myth that they live as well as someone earning [insert some value here around 70K]
3) They almost all do have WAY better phones than me with unlimited data.
4) The all drive crappy cars. mid 90s Camrys and oddly Saturns seem to turn up the most.
5) Seen a few Facebook pics of their rentals. Shabby but not messy or hoarderish.
6) Most work. PT because health insurance is a larger relative share vs the 10 bucks or so they make an hour and low pay full time with benefits is getting less and less common.
7) One, a former workmate, is a true loafer who works as little as possible. Spouts all sorts of right wing stuff oddly. Wife is a bar fly. Kids in trouble...
Probably more but that comes to my mind.
1) that is true but you can but a steak too, so go buy one!
2) They live within their means the same as everyone else...
3) I have a prepaid phone that is NOT government issued and i wish i had unlimited data!
4) Not all have crappy cars- taxes can help with that
5) Just because youre low income doesnt mean you live in a cardboard box or a mansion
6) Most do work
7) cant speak to that.
They are selling drugs on the side. No way can somebody afford a nice car with the little they give you. As far as the clothes I mean, what do you expect them to wear rags? Haha. I mean if it's $100 jerseys yeah, I see what you are saying.
Because middle and upper income dont sell drugs?? They dont buy a car with their cash assistance! They WORK and get taxes...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead
baldly lied about past income. B
so your wife didnt check his work history or income like she should have?? I know here they do.
Im on medicaid... I work the same as you do. Being on assistance is NOT the same as a criminal! How can you even begin to compare them???????
I dont like being on medicaid. I HATE IT. I cant get glasses for my daughter because theres such a crappy selection ( check my past threads on it). I cant go to any dr i may actually need to see. Insurance at work is way too expensive!! It would be almost 1/2 our income to pay for it! ( just to pay for it, not counting deductible, co pays, etc)
I didnt like being on foodstamps either. It wasnt just free food. It wasnt just pizzas and pop like people think, though i can spot someone on foodstamps a mile away buying that crap.
The only good, recent thing we were on was PIPP for electric. It is a percentage of income payment plan for a huge back bill we owed. Our bill stayed the same every month for a year so we could pay a percentage towards the old bill and pay it off. Id do that again if we needed it.
I DO go to the food pantry still because it helps stretch the last week or so of the month with staples.
It is not a walk in the park. Its not all free cable and hummers in the driveway. People DO WORK and try to better themselves. Maybe only a few and maybe they dont really talk about it but it does happen.
I don't know your circumstances or how you came to be in your current financial situation but it sounds like it is not a place you are comfortable staying in long term. Best wishes to you finding that path out.
Where I get upset is when I see people who don't make any attempt to make public assistance a temporary situation but rather are content to stay there long term. Even worse is when I see them raising their children to repeat the cycle rather than to break out of it.
Any young adult out there grew up absolutely knowing that acquiring a marketable skill or education could yield them a decent living. The days of getting a good factory job like their parents or grandparents might have had were gone before they were born, so they have no excuse for suddenly being surprised that there aren't any decent paying jobs for people without skills and education. The parents of kids growing up know this too.
My father left school halfway through 8th grade, my mother halfway through 10th. Fortunately that was in the days where my Dad could get a decent factory jobs. The place closed when he was 62 and so he managed to squeak by in the old economy. The writing was on the wall long before most of those jobs disappeared however and my parents raised us 6 kids to instead be part of the new economy. One brother got his PHD and is a high level aerodynamics scientist. Two of us got MBA's. One became a lawyer. One stopped with just a 4 year degree and is in a professional position with the Dept. of Defense. Only one didn't finish college but he too did well in a suburban Sheriff's Dept. How did all this happen with two uneducated parents? There was never a time growing up that we didn't get the "you will do well in school" message and the "you will not get in trouble message". This is how cycles of poverty can be broken.
I judge them, especially when they make poor life choices to get where they are and do nothing to improve their situation.
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Excellent point and the thing that is often not discussed. I wonder what proportion of working age people on assistance are there through zero fault of their own? My guess is not many.
How many are on assistance because they squandered their 13 years of free education? Or got involved with drugs/alcohol? Or had a kid without the means to provide? Or dated a toxic loser? Or poorly manage their money?
To leftists, misfortune just falls out of the sky and little thought is given to a history of choices and decisions.
I have no problem helping those who can't help themselves, or those who are going through a rough patch. I do have an issue with those who don't learn from past mistakes and keep having kids they can't afford. I also have an issue with those on welfare who don't spend the money as it is intended.
If you ever go shopping you can't help but notice some of these people load up on soda and junk food. I think welfare abuse is very real and poorly policed. I would rather see a workfare system in place. That way they earned the money they and owe society nothing.
Sugar /snack food manufacturers and Big Grocer lobby Congress to support SNAP.
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They dont buy a car with their cash assistance! They WORK and get taxes... 
