[quote]angry chicken wrote:
[quote]zecarlo wrote:
[quote]angry chicken wrote:
I’m happy that you had a father to provide you with good advice and were raised not to hurt people and to view criminals as losers and scum. I was raised by losers and scum. I was raised to steal food while my brother made a distraction. I grew up in Baltimore City in the 70’s. My mother was a whore and my father and I didn’t have much contact until I was in my 20’s. My mother married a series of dysfunctional men who physically abused my brother and I. And I’m not talking about spankings, my first stepfather broke my ribs and punctured my lung (when I was 6), and my second stepfather whipped me with extension cords while reading me scripture. I tried to kill myself when I was eight. My third stepfather kicked me out of the house when I was sixteen and I did what I had to do to survive on the street. I don’t speak to either of my parents anymore. So count yourself lucky that your father guided you in a positive direction. I was not so lucky. That doesn’t make me a loser or scum, by the way - and many of the “choises” that you attribute to me, were made for me. But whatever, I hope your smug feeling of superiority keeps you warm at night. I made the best of bad situation and I have no regrets about my life.
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And maybe, just maybe, those people on welfare are/were in a similar situation growing up. I don’t think anyone is born with a welfare gene just as I don’t believe you were born with a felon gene. [/quote]
Thank you, for that. Now we are VERY close to common ground, so bear with me for just one more round of interaction.
I am ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that many people on welfare grew up in similar situations as I did. Or worse, even. But if I can find a way to educate my self and find a good job, ANYONE CAN. Especially if they grew up like that! They’ve dealt with adversity. They’ve survived challenges. If ONLY they would channel that energy and experience into improving themselves and their circumstance they could accomplish ANYTHING! The amount of energy they expend “getting over on the man” could be spent learning a trade, or getting a college degree, or SOMETHING other than sitting at home collecting a check. It’s a lack of motivation that is the problem.
When the state “enables” them to just stay “stuck”, then there is no incentive for them to evolve. They are given JUUUUUUUST enough to get by. And if they actually DO get work, then the “safety net” they are used to depending on is taken away. They lose their free housing. They are no longer eligible for food stamps. They become “the working poor” until they can climb out of that scenario.
So what motivation is there for someone who gets a check from the govt for enough to get by to go out and get a job, work, deal with the stresses of child care and transportation, to only make the EXACT same thing - just making enough to get by? Why on earth would any rational person decide to get OFF of welfare?
THEY DON’T. That’s why there are so many people on welfare. That’s why they have to be FORCED off. Because no one in their right mind would willingly just say, “ya know, I think I’ve had enough of all this free stuff, I’m going to triple my stress load and lower my standard of living and hope for the best”.
Now I’m not saying just stop printing the checks. I would be VERY interested in a temporary INCREASE in spending to fund some kind of “wellfare to work” program, so long as it were for just a few years and the the goal was to phase all but the most extremly disadvantaged people off of government assistance.
I would also be open to a subsidized day care program where low income people with children who WANT to work, could have a safe place for their kids while they earned a living. Again, I’m all about EMPOWERING people to do for themselves, not punishing them for their lot in life.
This is the land of opportunity. I know MANY immigrants who have come to this country with NOTHING - not even speaking the language - and ten years later own houses and have nice jobs. Often times with large families and supporting relatives in a different country.
Why can’t AMERICAN CITIZENS do that?
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My only problem is when people talk about other people as though they were sub-human, disposable trash. You see threads on here where people equate someone working at McDonald’s with a monkey. People on welfare should just die. Illegals crossing the border should be shot on sight. I have no problems with different opinions but those are not mature, adult opinions that seek to find a solution but rather they are pseudo-macho, douchebag soundbites meant to impress other troglodytes. Or am I to believe that these posters are really that badass and hard that they would gladly shoot Mexican women and children as they crossed into the US? Am I to believe they would tell an 8 year old kid with a mother hooked on crack that they shouldn’t get welfare and he should just starve to death? That they would tell a McDonald’s employee, to his face, that he is no better than a monkey? And let’s not even get started on the homophobia, misogyny, racism and race baiting, chickenhawkishness, and just the general air of intolerance combined with a sense of superiority.
I don’t doubt some cheat the welfare system but I also believe that more people are on it because the system wants them there. They are victims which is why I can’t look at them with anger and hate. The state creates the sense of entitlement. The state wants them to be dependent. I worked in inner cities and lived in one as well. It’s almost like the system is working to keep people from getting out of the system. I had high school students who could barely read. How does that happen? How did they make it that far in school? More importantly, what will they be able to do if they actually are allowed to graduate? I don’t know what exactly a solution is, I do have ideas about what isn’t working, but not looking at people as though they were human beings who deserve to be treated with some measure of respect, dignity and compassion is no way to solve anything. America should be better than that.
