02-12-2010, 11:11 AM
Wow, I was starting to think that the gold bracelets and nice cars came with the welfare benefits here. I think anybody who shops at local grocery stores regularly has made this observation.
Before I begin, let me say that I grew up on welfare and food stamps (back when they were actual food stamps, not ebt cards). I am the oldest of 6 siblings, and my mother was a single mom most of the time. She had 6 total children from 3 different failed marriages (2 each). My father was a drug user, her 2nd husband an alcoholic, and the 3rd a child molester. Now you might say "Wow she sure could pick 'em", and you'd have a very good point. My point though, is that I have walked several miles in these peoples' shoes so I feel I am qualified to speak on the subject.
I agree that there is a place for welfare, and I'm very grateful is was available for my family growing up. I also agree that it is massively abused, and some (not all) of those on assistance feel entitled to it for some reason. The reality is that regardless of your upbringing, everybody has ample opportunity to make something of themselves on one condition: If they really want to and are willing to work for it and make sacrifices. Although they can be hard to find sometimes, there are always jobs out there and not just minimum wage ones. Most people are unwilling to go outside thier comfort zone to find work though. For sure welfare needs massive reform, but every person is ultimately responsible for their own life. There are no birth rights to always having a roof over your head, a good paying job, food on the table, or having nice things. There is a short list of things that anybody can do to greatly improve their situation:
#1: Stop having kids! If people could just get this one thing down it would probably make most of the other problems go away or become much less severe. Look, if you want to have 12 children, more power to you. But you damn well better be able to feed and care for them on your own. Every teen or adult knows full well where babies come from and how to prevent it, yet so many refuse to take simple steps to avoid the thousands and thousands of "oops" babies that are born every year. And please don't give me any excuses that birth control is against your religion because I'll bet you that unmarried intercourse falls under the same umbrella and you don't seem to have a problem with that. One free handout I am very much in favor of is condoms or any other method of birth control. My wife and I are 30, with no kids of our own, (we now care for my 6 yr old nephew and 4yr old niece) and people are always amazed that we haven't had any kids by choice.
#2: Live within your means! The problem is that too many people don't like what "within your means" happens to be, so they go way beyond it without worrying about the consequences. This one applies to everybody, not just welfare reciepients. Maybe you can't afford to buy a $25k truck and spend an additional $5k on tires and lift kit, so buy a used car or truck for $5k. Maybe you can't afford to spend $7 on a pack of cigs or a 6 pack of beer every day, so stop smoking and drinking. One of the worst money pits is eating out, even if it is so called "cheap" fast food. You can easily eat for an entire day or two at home for the cost of one fast food meal or plate lunch, even with the high cost of groceries here. You don't NEED a nice cell phone, TV, or computer. Cancel your cable or satellite. If you have a yard, grow a garden or even raise a couple chickens. Its hard NOT to run into people giving me a bag of tangerines or bananas from their yard and I hardly have any family or close friends here. And for god's sake don't ever get a credit card or go into consumer debt. That's one of the worst lies told to young people is that they need a credit card and to carry a certain amount of debt to be financially healthy.
I could go on and on but the point is that the lifestyle and money decisions are a substantially bigger factor in people's economic situations than their lack of income.
As someone who has grown up in poverty and had all the classic excuses happen in my household (drug abuse, acoholism, sexual abuse), yet made something of myself because I CHOSE TO, I have little sympathy except in the most extreme cases such as disabilities. I realize that Hawaii has some of the most liberal attitudes as a whole so the welfare entitlement philosophy probably won't change any time soon. Ask yourself what happens if the state goes bankrupt? What if welfare goes away or is severely reduced? What if welfare never existed in the first place? Would people starve? Would they just lay down and die? Would you feel sympathy for those who break into your house and steal from you because they were just "doing what they had to do because they had no other choice"? Would everybody still believe that we must choose between supporting and feeding the poor or having them all turn into criminals and rob and kill and steal everything? Sorry for the rambling but this is a subject I feel very strongly about and see some of the worst bass-ackwards attitudes about it here in Hawaii, not that it is a problem exclusive to Hawaii. Am I in the extreme minority by believing that as an adult, nobody owes you anything? The harsh reality is that this money doesnt appear magically from thin air and that this and many other states are in grave danger of going completely broke. How many of you feel that your taxes are too low and would have no problem with them being continuously raised to match the demand of the public trough?
Ok I'll get off my soap box now so some bleeding heart can attempt to invalidate my points and come up with more excuses. By the way I'm not this angry or bitter of a person, you just happened to catch me at the right moment with the right issue in the right frame of mind ;-)
Before I begin, let me say that I grew up on welfare and food stamps (back when they were actual food stamps, not ebt cards). I am the oldest of 6 siblings, and my mother was a single mom most of the time. She had 6 total children from 3 different failed marriages (2 each). My father was a drug user, her 2nd husband an alcoholic, and the 3rd a child molester. Now you might say "Wow she sure could pick 'em", and you'd have a very good point. My point though, is that I have walked several miles in these peoples' shoes so I feel I am qualified to speak on the subject.
I agree that there is a place for welfare, and I'm very grateful is was available for my family growing up. I also agree that it is massively abused, and some (not all) of those on assistance feel entitled to it for some reason. The reality is that regardless of your upbringing, everybody has ample opportunity to make something of themselves on one condition: If they really want to and are willing to work for it and make sacrifices. Although they can be hard to find sometimes, there are always jobs out there and not just minimum wage ones. Most people are unwilling to go outside thier comfort zone to find work though. For sure welfare needs massive reform, but every person is ultimately responsible for their own life. There are no birth rights to always having a roof over your head, a good paying job, food on the table, or having nice things. There is a short list of things that anybody can do to greatly improve their situation:
#1: Stop having kids! If people could just get this one thing down it would probably make most of the other problems go away or become much less severe. Look, if you want to have 12 children, more power to you. But you damn well better be able to feed and care for them on your own. Every teen or adult knows full well where babies come from and how to prevent it, yet so many refuse to take simple steps to avoid the thousands and thousands of "oops" babies that are born every year. And please don't give me any excuses that birth control is against your religion because I'll bet you that unmarried intercourse falls under the same umbrella and you don't seem to have a problem with that. One free handout I am very much in favor of is condoms or any other method of birth control. My wife and I are 30, with no kids of our own, (we now care for my 6 yr old nephew and 4yr old niece) and people are always amazed that we haven't had any kids by choice.
#2: Live within your means! The problem is that too many people don't like what "within your means" happens to be, so they go way beyond it without worrying about the consequences. This one applies to everybody, not just welfare reciepients. Maybe you can't afford to buy a $25k truck and spend an additional $5k on tires and lift kit, so buy a used car or truck for $5k. Maybe you can't afford to spend $7 on a pack of cigs or a 6 pack of beer every day, so stop smoking and drinking. One of the worst money pits is eating out, even if it is so called "cheap" fast food. You can easily eat for an entire day or two at home for the cost of one fast food meal or plate lunch, even with the high cost of groceries here. You don't NEED a nice cell phone, TV, or computer. Cancel your cable or satellite. If you have a yard, grow a garden or even raise a couple chickens. Its hard NOT to run into people giving me a bag of tangerines or bananas from their yard and I hardly have any family or close friends here. And for god's sake don't ever get a credit card or go into consumer debt. That's one of the worst lies told to young people is that they need a credit card and to carry a certain amount of debt to be financially healthy.
I could go on and on but the point is that the lifestyle and money decisions are a substantially bigger factor in people's economic situations than their lack of income.
As someone who has grown up in poverty and had all the classic excuses happen in my household (drug abuse, acoholism, sexual abuse), yet made something of myself because I CHOSE TO, I have little sympathy except in the most extreme cases such as disabilities. I realize that Hawaii has some of the most liberal attitudes as a whole so the welfare entitlement philosophy probably won't change any time soon. Ask yourself what happens if the state goes bankrupt? What if welfare goes away or is severely reduced? What if welfare never existed in the first place? Would people starve? Would they just lay down and die? Would you feel sympathy for those who break into your house and steal from you because they were just "doing what they had to do because they had no other choice"? Would everybody still believe that we must choose between supporting and feeding the poor or having them all turn into criminals and rob and kill and steal everything? Sorry for the rambling but this is a subject I feel very strongly about and see some of the worst bass-ackwards attitudes about it here in Hawaii, not that it is a problem exclusive to Hawaii. Am I in the extreme minority by believing that as an adult, nobody owes you anything? The harsh reality is that this money doesnt appear magically from thin air and that this and many other states are in grave danger of going completely broke. How many of you feel that your taxes are too low and would have no problem with them being continuously raised to match the demand of the public trough?
Ok I'll get off my soap box now so some bleeding heart can attempt to invalidate my points and come up with more excuses. By the way I'm not this angry or bitter of a person, you just happened to catch me at the right moment with the right issue in the right frame of mind ;-)