There are a lot of holes in the article, but while the author is not the worst offender, it's hard for me to feel too sorry for her. Having children when you aren't ready. Buying a house you can't afford. People should know better.
This is what happened when I drove my Mercedes to pick up food stamps
- Thread starter crimsonaudio
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Don't know if it still works this way but ...... A few years ago a friend of a friend went on unemployment. He told me the process for staying on unemployment was very easy. He had to demonstrate he was actively looking for work. How is this proven? He would call into an automated system, answer a few questions via push botton, and give the name of two companies he applied to work for. After a few weeks of this he suspected there was really no check against staying on unemployment for the maximum amount of time. He soon started answering "Burger King" and "McDonald's" to the automated question every week. He got his check and didn't bother really to start looking for work until the benefits were about to end. Like most people he followed the government incentives to the lazy way of fixing the problem.
I am glad there was help for her though. However, you are 100% correct with regard to decisions that may not have seemed so "bad" at the time eventually coming back to crush "you". This is the case with SOOOOOOOOO many people in our society though. I've said it before, I do taxes and a lot of the times it leads into financial advice. I can't tell you how many of my clients live to the brink of their paychecks each month. A lot of them make a lot more money than my wife and I yet from a financial stability standpoint are worse off than we are by far. I tell anyone who will listen to live below their means and put back for a rainy day because it will come. It doesn't mean live on bread and water and go to the extreme with it, though in some cases some people need to do that temporarily. But don't live a lifestyle that doesn't allow for savings each month. Don't create a lifestyle that is nothing more than a jinga game. One block pulled and the entire thing comes down. But most do not listen. They come back the next year and many are either in the same shape as the year before or worse.
Yeah, the author and her husband seem to have the education/skills to be productive citizens. Getting some temporary help, which is really just getting back the money you paid into the system, is not a problem. (Although it is curious that her husband was out of work for years.) The problem I have are with those who live fully embracing all the handouts. Have a kid? Here's a check. Want a house? Here's a subsidy. There's a government program for every want/need. Rewarding irresponsible behavior is not the way to discourage irresponsible behavior.
ETA: And I'll ask it again, how can people who emigrate here become very wealthy within one generation while we have generations of able-bodied Americans who are on the perpetual dole? I won't talk about my wife's experience here, but how about her friends who emigrated about the same time as her? None are in bad shape financially. Almost all of them are quite well off. A few are millionaires. They did it by opening their own businesses or getting an education and the corresponding good career and investing most of their disposable income. It's not hard.
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In TX, you need to log in to the website, keep track of the jobs you applied for. That way, if audited, you can prove you were applying for jobs. I have my spreadsheet of jobs I applied for and interviews I went on in Jan 2013. Mine were legit though, but it's really easy to game the system if you can live off of $400/wk.
It is because they recognized opportunity when they saw it and acted with initiative, instead of being convinced of their permanent victim status with the endless litany of excuses.
There are incentives that our government provides for immigrants to open businesses that John Q citizen doesn't qualify for. So it's not always quite the level playing field.
Sorry but "the far-right rhetoric" is exactly what is going on and I've seen tons of families whose Mom is on government assistance only to have her daughters move into the apartment next door. Another thing is that people are being taken off the welfare only to be put on SSI disability. I know of a woman who was taken off welfare only to get disability only because she is a drunk. She has lived in the same section 8 apartment for over ten years. IMO, there are far more people taking advantage of the situation than those that are taking help. Moving the people to SSI disability only helps the numbers look good but it is still government assistance.
It would be an interesting study to see how many people move from welfare to SSI disability. I wonder if we can get the government to fund our study? I bet we could actually get a grant to conduct the study. The irony. The government funding a study to show how inept it is.
There have actually been studies. However there are a lot more people who move to SSDI from SUI when their long-term benefits run out...
Having worked in education and knowing people who have worked in medicine for years, and working in insurance now...I'm sorry, folks, but I've heard too many horror stories to believe that the majority of people on assistance just need a helping hand for a short period of time. For those who do, there is no shame. None at all. But I can't believe that's the majority of recipients.
To highlight how knee-jerk judgmental many are without knowing ANY of a person's story...
It is a plant by US auto makers to ensure that all of the shiftless Americans who want to be on public assistance don't have to deal with the scorn they get from driving a German automobile.
DOWN WITH ZE GERMANS!
Need to watch these:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/disability-usa/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396227/
Tough lesson to preach when our society and economy are based on consumerism (Is that a word?) - if we don't buy, our economy tanks. That is an irrefutable fact. There may be opinions on what should be bought by whom at what time; is that taught in school (only in an Econ class which, since I took only academic courses, I never encountered and actually I don't even think it was offered during my HS days and had nothing to do with my major in college so....)? No, it's not "common sense"; with every form of media we are inundated with things to buy (wait for it) that are never inexpensive. Oh sure, the odd Kohl's/JC Penney/ pick-your-automaker adds promote sales but they are oftentimes more than what people having really difficult times should spend (I speak from recent experience). Marketers know how to overcome most of the "common-sense" resistance to spending more than you can afford - IMO I think they leaned from the feds. Add to all of this, we are in general talking about the US population which, on average (IMO), has an IQ of less than 100. I am not even sure this should be in blue....
i dont think that graph is the best way to show these data. it appears that a lot of the growth in this graph is coming from social security and medicare which are going to be growing a lot due to an aging population.
The helping hand needs to slap more people in the face.
i would separate out ss & medicare, medicaid and other social benefits, then veterans benefits and analyze each individually.
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