You live a rich and full fantasy life; what makes you think these people want jobs? My city is so full of deadbeats on welfare/unemployment/food stamps and gov’t housing that it’s gotten difficult to drive around during the day time. The streets are littered with crap mobiles being driven at speeds 5 to 15 miles per hour below the speedlimit by people stonned on pot, driving from HUD apt. complex to HUD apt.complex to score more weed or to sell a stash, then it’s off to the convenience store to buy lotto tickets, cigarettes and beer. And of course, if you’re low on cash, just don the ski mask, grab the shotgun and hit the nearest liquor store or convenience store for cash and goodies. With a ski mask and a shotgun, every small store is your personal ATM!
It was a conversation, among young mothers obviously collecting benefits, of how you can get a 3 bedroom apartment but they don’t give you enough money to, that I had overheard, contrasted that State of the Union that inspired me to post a food stamp article.
I just think it’s not hopeless for some of these folks, but they have to be inspired to see how good an opportunity they have to change their lives for the better and go to work for themselves.
This discussion reminds me of some of my father’s rather blunt rants... before he moved from a minority & financially distressed town to where he is now, he would complain every time he went to the grocery store... when he would be in line near or behind someone paying with the old-style food stamps - proudly buying a cart full of items he didn’t even purchase for himself (high-end meats and all name-brand canned foods), then watch them load their cart(s)-full of expensive groceries into the trunk of their late-model Cadillac or other expensive automobile that was parked out front in the fire lane...
He would be steaming mad. And then I began noticing not only what he did - but those who would go through the checkout line - pay for a cart full of groceries, then whip out a big roll of cash to pay for the 2nd cart full of beer and cartons of cigarettes...
Growing up, I gained an appreciation for generics, and later, store branded products - as a legitimate means of stretching the $. As an adult, and as a father with a modest income, these lessons continue to pay dividends. Yet many public assistance recipients completely lack such reasoning. They fill carts full of the most expensive, brand-name, foods- along with the more “prime” cuts of meat instead of the less expensive varieties - thus spending more, and feeding less...
And we won’t even go into the movement now to require recipients of social help to undergo drug testing...