[yldstrk]

There is a stigma.

I am appalled at all of you “Freepers” who want to pick on the “poor” during this current economic crisis. I am NOT like you. You make my blood run cold. It could be you next week, don’t you see that?

[MortMan]

I am appalled that you would browbeat FReepers for “picking on the poor” when they are decrying the documented excesses of the system that have fostered such abuses.

In too many communities, there is no such stigma for many.

And with respect to the “It could be you next week” comment. The majority of comments shown here are about long-term public assistance, not unemployment. Forgive me if I don’t fall victim to your hyperbole.

[oh8eleven]

I am appalled at all of you “Freepers” who want to pick on the “poor” during this current economic crisis. I am NOT like you.
You're an attorney and it sounds to me like you could be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Yes, there are (real) poor people ... always have been, always will be.
But in the last 20-30 years welfare had become a career choice for millions and in some families, for generations.
It has to stop.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I am appalled at all of you “Freepers” who want to pick on the “poor” during this current economic crisis.

I have literally been at the grocery store and watched a woman buy groceries of a type/quality I could not afford, pay for them with a WIC card, and then load them into a luxury SUV that not only could I not afford, but could not afford to gas up. This may sound like a load of BS but I guarantee you it is 100% true. And I'm a working cat with a family of four, lucky enough have a paying gig.

THIS is the type of thing that riles people up whenever this topic comes up.

[CanuckYank]

I think you miss the point here. While there certainly are people who need TEMPORARY assistance, and a few who are totally dysfunctional and will need it forever, there are now multiple generations of losers sucking the life out of the rest of us whose mentality REALLY is “if I pump out one more kid, I’ll get upgraded from an apartment to a house”. (FROM FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE.)

And as an aside, there are the foster parent mills that this lifestyle has enabled, wherein people are pulling down $100K for providing a roof over the heads of five or six parentless, unwanted kids.

[DH]

Have you ever been poor?
Well, I have been dead broke three times in my life and each time rather than taking a single penny from the government, I took anything I could as a way of making money. From the bottom I rose up without sitting on my hands whining why I was poor and everyone else should support me.

I have absolutely no pity on the so-called “Poor.” They can get out and “bust their ass” just like I did in 1972, 1982 and 1986.

I now am living a very comfortable life by the sweat of my own brow...not that of the taxpayers.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

“It could be you next week, don’t you see that?”

No, it would not be me next week. I follow Dave Ramsey’s advice. I consume far less than I produce. I save. I build wealth. God bless the American Dream.

[Smokin' Joe]

It could be you next week, don’t you see that?

Yes, I see that. I have been there and didn't get the T-shirt.

This is why I am sympathetic toward a hand, but not an ongoing handout. I shovelled snow to feed my grandkids one winter and worked temporary jobs through the holidays (waaay 'underemployed') to meet the bills. People paid me for working, not to sit on my butt and whine.

For those who can't relocate, get on a 'spot jobs' list, put an ad in the local freebie newspaper for odd jobs.

You'll get the nastiest work available at the worst times. The pay might not be great, but it is something. But if you do those jobs without complaint and as well as you can, it may lead to more (one of my 1-week 'temporary' jobs ran three months, paying just enough to meet the pared-down budget, and I left on great terms to start my own business).