15 responses so far ↓

• 1 R. May // Jul 1, 2009 at 9:37 am

  Agreed. I used to live in a neighborhood with many on various amounts of welfare – it’s not a pleasant lifestyle. And it’s not one that’s easy to leave either. Talk about a vicious cycle. You would see gernerations of families.

  Sure there’s people that take advantage of it. But there’s wealthy people who cheat on their taxes too. I don’t think either is the majority.

  Way long time ago I was qualified for welfare (shortly after I had my daughter) but I decided just to accept the help of WIC (she had to be on a specialized formula that was really expensive)and daycare supplements. Daycare wasn’t bad because I didnt have to meet with anyone. But I detested my monthly WIC meetings.

  They would talk to you like you were an idiot. Granted many people who recieve those services are not well educated but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated with dignity. My daughter was a thin baby – WIC measures and quizes you on things before you are allowed your formula. One day the nurse informed me ever so snottily and condecendingly that my daughter was not growing properly and yada yada yada. I told her that her pediatricians think shes just fine and that as I was not in any way mentally incapacitated she didn’t need to speak to me as if I was a toddler. I can only imagine how some of these poor women feel who won’t stand up for themselves.

  I was never so happy as when we were done with formula.

  Story two – daughter dearest was on state health ins. Guess how many options there are for dr? So I finally found one. Daughter began projectile vomitting breastmilk. Took her to dr. Switched to formula, didn’t help. Rinse, repeat.

  After the third round – I decided screw it I would pinch pennies and take her to the pedicatrician (15 min visit = $75.00). She was diagnosed with reflux in an instant and the NP told me had she been properly diagnosed and treated, she could have stayed on breastmilk.

  Sorry I know this is long but as someone who’s been there I’m hoping I can tell people what the face of welfare really looks like.

  I was college educated, I had a job. Which happened to have no ins. I live in uber expensive dc/metro area. Child support order for $25.00 a week (hahahah – that was almost the cost on one can on formula).

• 2 Kim A. // Jul 1, 2009 at 11:26 am

  I’m not on welfare but I choose to use the laundromat for my bigger items, I choose to go to the thrift stores in order to be frugal, I would happily ride the bus if there was service out here and I rarely buy brand name items opting for good quality generic at Aldis. I think welfare has a purpose but as with humanity–all things can be abused and misused, welfare just being one example.

• 3 NogginBoink // Jul 1, 2009 at 12:58 pm

  I don’t think it’s envy that causes “the rich” (for lack of a better term) to voice opinions against welfare.

  It’s just plain anger that the government is taking my money and giving it to someone else without my having a say-so in the matter.

  Redistribution of wealth, in any form, is a policy that I’m against. I certainly don’t envy those on welfare, but I’m mad as hell that they (through the government) are stealing my money to support themselves.

• 4 Cat // Jul 1, 2009 at 1:46 pm

  I’m college educated. I planned my pregnancy with my ex-husband. But I’ve been on WIC. I would very much like to be able to afford everything I need, but when your pregnancy coincides with your ex-husband’s mental breakdown and subsequent unemployability and divorce, you gotta take what you can get. I was left with debt and a mortgage that we had gotten based on 2 incomes. WIC was the only thing I qualified for, but the milk, cheese, cereal, etc allowed me to have some basic staples while pregnant, and now while breastfeeding.

  I’ve also learned to be very frugal- generic food, meds, and diapers. My only “splurges” are books for my son and pictures of him from the Wal-Mart portrait center (love those specials)

  Stuff happens. I needed the help, I’ve been paying taxes for the 10 years I’ve had jobs, and I utilized a program meant for people like me. But in the same sense I think that’s what these programs should be- emergency fallbacks for the truly unexpected. It’s the women with 4 kids who’ve been on WIC since the first that baffle me. I don’t plan to reproduce again until I’m set financially. Birth control is readily accessible. Why do they keep having kids? Why don’t they help themselves out of the cycle? Is there something society could be doing better?

  Since I’m not writing a public policy thesis, I’ll be quiet now. But definitely an interesting post.

• 5 Meg // Jul 1, 2009 at 2:02 pm

  I can see how you might describe the way many workers/savers feel as “envy” when non-workers/non-savers receive fat checks from the government. We are all toiling away so hard to work and earn and save so that one day maybe we can afford to sit back and get a monthly check from our investment accounts and not have a mortgage to pay. These people skipped a big fat 5 decade long step! They’re sitting back getting checks for nothing!

  It’s envy in a way, but it’s not envy of their entire lifestyle – it’s more like anger, as nogginboink suggests. Envy is always a form of anger though.

  But it’s a hard emotion to resist. Very few on welfare are sympathetic characters – especially when you see that many savers/workers barely have a higher quality of life as those gettting government benefits.

  One parent scrapes for decades to send their kid to college – the other never saves a dime but qualifies for government grants and loans. One person gets a second or third job to pay the mortgage, another gets their payment slashed via a government program. One person sacrifices all luxuries to pay off credit card debt. Another files bankruptcy and gets a clean slate.

  One of my best friends is currently living off unemployment (over $1000 a month in government checks) – and she’s also raking in about $2K a month in cash from babysitting and teaching swim lessons. We live almost identical lifestyles. I’m not jealous of her – she’s got debt and stays stressed – but I am pissed.

  Sure, it sucks to be at the mercy of the government dole. But it doesn’t suck that much. Most people “in poverty” in Amercia DO actually have TV and air conditioning and cell phones and plenty of food and access to transportation, etc. And most of them do earn income – they just earn it under the table and use it for discretionary pleasures the government won’t pay for.

  The fact is that being “poor” in America isn’t that bad. Very very few people actually go hungry or go without in any way in Amercia. And even if you are flat broke and can’t work, there are more free services and non profits and social programs here to keep you entertained and fed and clothed forever (libraries, food banks, thrift stores, etc).

• 6 R. May // Jul 1, 2009 at 3:23 pm

  @ nogginbonk – so the better solution is to have no welfare programs? i can only imagine what the crime rate would be.

  how about schools? that wealth redistribution. lots of people don’t have children and their taxes go to the schools? what about the roads i don’t drive on – should I not have to pay for those?

  i think a better solution would be to put in place more programs to help people on welfare succeed in getting off of it.

  the majority of people on welfare statistically speaking are the working poor.

  There is no ‘fat check’ forever and ever anymore. it’s TCA or temporary cash assistance. and you get it for 5 years lifetime. I qualified for it. You know how much that fat check was for, for my daughter and i? $375.00 a month.

  There are other separate forms of assistance such as food stamps and public housing that don’t expire – but again doesn’t get you far.

  @ Meg – unemployment isn’t a social service. when you work you and your employer pay for unempolyment insurance. those who collect it worked for it and paid for it.

• 7 Meg from FruWiki // Jul 1, 2009 at 4:14 pm

  I think it’s easy sometimes to see things in terms of “us vs. them”. Why do THEY get help? Why don’t WE get more? We forget how easily any one of us could lose our job, get sick, lose our homes, etc. And then we would be glad that those systems are in place for those who NEED them.

  I’ve seen my mom help a lot of people, family and strangers both. And yes, sometimes I do think that she overextends herself. But if she helps out one of my siblings, do I feel entitled to ask for a gift of equal value to “be fair” — receiving which would mean that she couldn’t help my sibling in need as much? No, of course not! I’d rather her be able them now when they need her. And I know she’d be there for me if things ever got really bad and there was anything at all she could do. But I hope it never comes to that.

  I feel similarly when it comes to the government. I want those who NEED the help to be helped. Not everyone has another support system like I do who would at least see that they had a place to stay and food to eat. I don’t want to see people suffer whether man, woman, or child — but perhaps especially the many, many single moms and their kids who tend to make up the bulk of such programs. And I don’t want to see such programs be scrapped because too many people get greedy.

  And no, I don’t think welfare is a perfect system. From what I gather from friends, it is not fun at all. And I don’t think it should be. It’s not about fun.

  However, I think we have to do more to help people get off of welfare and other government programs when they can (and, sadly, I’m not sure all people can support themselves). I’ve seen a friend get a second job, knowing it meant more time away from her young daughter, and then find out that whatever she made she lost from the government and then some. And when a friend of the family saved up his entire life to buy just a small plot of land and build his family a small house so that he wouldn’t have to pay rent, the government took away the benefits that his family still needed to survive. He was forced to sell the land to a neighbor, who was at least kind enough to accept it in name only and allow him to continue living there. So, that is why I think there is something wrong with system.

• 8 Angie // Jul 1, 2009 at 6:26 pm

  I struggle with the issue of welfare. I can see how it can help people get on their feet when they really need it, but I’ve also seen firsthand how easy it is to abuse. As a child we were one of the only families in our neighborhood who didn’t have cable and didn’t EVER eat out. We were also the only family not on welfare. When my cousin found out his girlfriend was pregnant, he proposed but she told him she’d rather stay single because the welfare checks would be higher for single moms. I know these seem like small things, but over time, things like this add up to make me resentful of people who are on welfare.

• 9 bogart // Jul 1, 2009 at 10:31 pm

  I’m pretty confident that I get more as a pretty high-earning taxpayer than I could ever get on welfare (unless, perhaps, I had a phenomenally costly medical condition such as needing dialysis).

  Just to highlight a few biggies —
  We get the child tax credit, though not all of it (earn too much to qualify); we got $750 back last year.

  Pre-tax withholding on retirement savings, medical costs, and child care will save us around $5,500 in taxes this year.

  Our mortgage interest deduction saves us about $2,400 in taxes yearly.

  One might, I suppose, respond that we are just being allowed to keep our own money, but the fact is, having a government costs money. Having a military costs money. Having roads costs money. You can like or dislike the particulars about how our taxes get allocated, but I for one think that some level of taxation is necessary, and in terms of the rules of our system, that a household with earnings as high as ours are gets welfare of (just to add the numbers above — ignoring other smaller things) $8,650 / year strikes me as pretty regressive.

• 10 bogart // Jul 1, 2009 at 10:33 pm

  Oh, and LAL — not to split hairs, but Medicare is the government health insurance program(s) that provide access to healthcare to people 65+. Medicaid is the one that provides that type of access to (some of the) poor.

• 11 Grace // Jul 2, 2009 at 12:47 am

  Thanks for the link. Reading the comments is a revelation–I like the generosity of your readers, but still, I am appalled at the lack of knowledge. “The woman with four kids on welfare forever” died during the Clinton era. With rare exceptions for disabled mothers, one gets welfare for a grand total of five years. Losing one’s home as a condition of receiving welfare has never been true. The reader may know someone who lost their home for any number of reasons, but owning a home does NOT keep one off of welfare. And finally, to those who are bummed because they cannot personally choose where their tax money goes–just how do you think your schools are funded, your home is protected by the police and fire departments, your historical monuments are preserved, your parks are maintained and your roads are paved?

• 12 amy // Jul 2, 2009 at 2:39 am

  I pretty much agree with you, LAL. It is a free ride in some respects, but I’d rather pay my own way with my own money from my own job that gives me the ability to earn my own living. Autonomy is priceless.

  I used to work at a local state university branch. Most of the clerical workers were single moms and despite working full time their salary was so low most of them were on welfare as well. Getting to know them and sharing details of our respective lives — theirs were no picnic.

  Yeah, welfare is “free” but, then again, it’s kind of not. The autonomy thing, you know?

  I don’t mean to speak badly of those who need welfare, food stamps, heating assistance, food banks or the like. Not at all. I’ve been poor. And it sucks whether it’s free or not.

• 13 LAL // Jul 2, 2009 at 10:42 am

  R.May thank you for the story.

  Kim, I don’t buy name brand items either. But many times choices are limited at stores in poor areas. They get what’s available.

  NogginBank, what happens if you needed disability one day? Is that redistribution of wealth? Or your spouse died and your kids started collecting SSI? Redistribution of wealth? Yes. Necessary? Yes.

  Cat I agree. What are you supposed to do I guess if the relationship you thought was great, turns out not? A friend of mine is a single mom because her husband cheated while serving abroad. She refused to reconcile. But well she has a baby.

  Meg I agree about there are those truly in need and those not.

  Angie many people I’ve seen where I come from are on welfare and they don’t wed. Mostly because they got pregnant because of being careless. They really don’t even like the person. Sigh. So getting married isn’t the answer either.

  Bogart, medicare is old folks insurance and medicaid is for income levels and I believe people on disability and death.

  Thanks grace.

  Amy that’s it. It does come with strings attached and it’s not as easy as it seems.

• 14 Abigail // Jul 4, 2009 at 7:48 pm

  Um, as someone who has been on welfare, I assure you it’s not an easy life. Yes, there are some folks who cheat the system. But most of us? Most of us just want to be able to work a real job.

  All the disabled people I know and have met all wish we could work. My husband’s eczema is so bad that we’re probably going to have to go deeper into debt to move him to a state where he can live comfortably and not have to go on disability. It’s still not clear that that will work though.

  I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and will probably never earn full-time pay. I certainly won’t be able to work a 40 hour week. The only work I can do is when I can set my own hours, preferably from home. Beyond that, my energy varies too much day to day.

  And for all of you who think it’s a “free ride”?
  I get $881 a month from the government as a disabled person. In a city where most apartments cost $700. I get Medicare, but it doesn’t cover all my drugs. One is about $300 every three months.

  On welfare, a single person can get maybe $500 or so a month. In food stamps? Maybe $100.

  It’s not an easy life. You fill out a lot of forms, you go through tons of needless bureaucracy and you never get quite enough to make ends meet. But the government insists it’s plenty.

  Oh, and it’s ridiculously hard to qualify. For two people, you can only earn $1750 to get even the smallest amount of food stamps or medical help.

  It’s a hard, humiliating experience. That’s not to say there aren’t abusers of the system, but most of us wouldn’t be on it if we had the choice.

• 15 LAL // Jul 5, 2009 at 10:09 pm

  Abagail, I know my grandmother gets $600/month from SS and $100 from food stamps. The rest is supplemented by her kids. So it’s an easy life at all.

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