Need help debunking: People on welfare don't want jobs and waste their $

[rocktop15]

Hey guys. I have three friends who insist that a large majority of the people on welfare do not want to work because they are lazy and just take that money and spend it on things such as fine steak or waste it on nice tv's. I explained to them that this was such a stereotype and asked them if they knew any homeless people. I then explained about the concept of corporate welfare and how the airline industries would be out of business if it weren't for it. Finally, I explained that welfare wasn't created as a handout for the poor, but as a way to give consumers spending money to put back into the economy if America ever fell into a great depression. Your thoughts?

[meow2u3]

1. I've known people on welfare

And the ones I know (granted only 2) wanted to work, but they neither could find work or were too disabled to work but not disabled enough to draw SSDI.

A few people on welfare are lazy--my sister went to school with one such girl--but because of them, the truly needy are smeared with the same broad brush.

[Zenlitened]

2. Find new friends?

:shrug:

[JanMichael]

3. There are lazy people at work too who waste their money.

AND they take up a space where a really motivated person could be.

[Mnemosyne]

7. The lazy people at work are often the case workers

for those on welfare, I've noticed. They do stupid things to justify their jobs. 2 workers showed up to sign a friends daughter off the welfare to work program ( she got on SSI and never even participated in the program other than to sign up!)). And they gave her a WallyWorld gift card for $15 to boot!

She would call her worker and leave messages and the worker would rarely ever return her calls. It sometimes took, I believe she said< up to 5 or 6 calls before getting a response.

[ultraist]

4. They obviously haven't read the Welfare Reform legislation

There are time limits and work requirements. The people that qualify, don't have any money to waste. It's means tested.

Do they have any fucking clue what the Federal Poverty Level is? Or the requirements to qualify for welfare?

Additionally, there are numerous checks in place to prevent welfare fraud, including a DMV check to ensure their vehicle (if they own one) is under a certain value (I think it's 2k), they also check bank accounts to look for cash on hand, require signed forms from the employer, etc. Food stamps are issued by credit card which requires an ID to use.

Very few people recieve cash assistance if they don't have children and the TANF amounts are very low per child.

I suppose all of those disabled people could really work and are just faking it. Or those who are looking for work before their two years runs out, could find employment, because it's so easy now to find a job. :eyes:

Let's just let the kids starve because their parents are lazy cheats.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Thank you for saying this:

"Let's just let the kids starve because their parents are lazy cheats."

Too often, the 'compassionate' conservatives forget all about the kids.

[Mnemosyne]

5. a girl I helped raise was on

she got a whole $300 a month. Yeah, you can live really high on the hog on that!! NOT.

People are so ignorant. I bet they also believe that poor = stupid and uneducated also.

The small city I live in has no jobs, not even minimum wage. No one can afford to relocate and the nearest bigger city is 40 miles, try paying for gas to get to work on a minimum wage job on that even if you could find one with enough hours.

And I'd get some new friends also, maybe some with compassion and the ability to reason and think. No one chooses to be so horribly poor, it is a vicious cycle perpetuated by those in control of the employment. If you have a min. wage job of 15 to 20 hours, no one wants to adjust your hours to help you work another job.

If you manage to make even $1 over their limit they take all help away, reducing the poor soul to an even lower standard of life.

Thank you for this post, it shows the mentality of many in this country.

[Th1onein]

6. I used to be on welfare.....

And, believe me, it's not fun. You live VERY poor. You don't have the money to buy things like steaks and nice TVs. You barely have enough money to pay the rent, if you're lucky. Being on welfare is no fun at all.

When I was on welfare, all I wanted to do was get off of it. I went to college, got scholarships, and financial aid to pay for it. And, get this, one year, my caseworker at the welfare office tried to cut my family's benefits based on my financial aid! She didn't "get it" that you can't spend educational financial aid on anything BUT education; it is against the law. I had to go to the law library and look up the law for her, in order to stop her from doing this to my family.

I was so "lazy" that I made it through college, as a single mother with two children (one of whom had cystic fibrosis and required therapy) graduated summa cum laude, and got a scholarship to go to law school!

Most people don't want to be on welfare; and in fact, most of the people on welfare are under six years old. YOU tell them to go out and get a job, but personally, I don't want to have to drive to work with the freeways clogged with toddlers behind the wheel.

[Anakin Skywalker]

8. Hey, Rethuglicans Have No Problem

with child labor. Anything to maximize profits. Remember, their God is Mammon.

[classof56]

11. Well said! Thanks for sharing your success story.

You have many reasons to be proud. And I'll bet your kids are proud of you, too. Congrats and great job!

Blessings!

[ultraist]

18. What an inspirational and honest story!

Of all of the families I've worked or volunteered with, NONE of them squandered their money nor did they want to be on welfare.

It's easy for people to judge when they have no information whatsoever about the laws or actual welfare recipients. Buying into RW myths and stereotypes works well for the lazy.

[Warpy]

20. I survived welfare for about six months due to severe illness

The one thing you can say about living on welfare is that it's boring. You barely have enough for your housing and maybe two meals a day, no snacks. You can't afford even public transit, if it's available, and you can't go anywhere, especially if you're ill or you have infants and toddlers. It's bare subsistence living, with no extras, and that means things like newspapers or even an occasional bag of chips.

I went back to work against medical advice after six months.

Living on welfare is such a hideous experience that anyone with the skills to get off it will do so as quickly as possible. It's a punitive system that destroys your spirit, even, as in my case, you're there through no fault of your own. Illness is still not a consumer decision.

The dishonesty surrounding all the theorizing about families on multigenerational welfare is that nobody has ever bothered to evaluate these people fully. From the ones I got to know I would suggest that borderline mental retardation and clinical depression play far greater roles than laziness does.

[libodem]

10. there's a good part in bowling for Columbine

about the six year old kid who went to school and shot a classmate..His mom was on a welfare to work program. She was working two shifts to get ahead. She had to ride a bus hours to get to and from work. Most welfare recipients are only on two years. I was on for a while in the 80's after a bitter divorce, new baby and two toddlers. Got 50% of the cost of living from 10 years prior. About $300.00 for the 4 of us. Yet I was better off that putting them in childcare and making $7.50 an hour.

[Dark]

12. Here it is debunked.

The homeless are not lazy. Give them a chance to lift themselves out of poverty, and they'll take it.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0126/p01s01-ussc.htm

The Columbus strategy is based in part on Dr. Culhane's research, which shed new light on the makeup of the homeless population. Studying shelters in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1990s, Culhane found that although the long-term homeless made up only 10 percent of the homeless population over three years, they were using half of all shelter beds on any given night. And when Culhane compared the costs of supporting those with and without permanent housing, he discovered that it cost a city just $1,000 more annually per person to offer supportive housing - with services for mental health, addictions, employment, and other needs - than to care for the chronically homeless.

At North High Apartments, a Rebuilding Lives project near Ohio State University that opened two years ago, the initial projection was a 50 percent turnover - but it's been closer to 15 percent.



As for the laziness, sixty percent of homeless men in Cincinnati work. Twenty percent of homeless women. See this http://www.cincihomeless.org/content/downloads/GCCH_HomelessInCincinnati.pdf">study



More women would work, but with one in five women who flee domestic violence being homeless, you might want to cut them a break.

Another interesting statistic found in that report, ONE THIRD of the homeless in Cincinnati are children.

And in this http://www.unt.edu/cedr/homelessreport.pdf">study done by two Ph.D.'s, we find that the homeless cost Dallas an estimated 31 MILLION DOLLARS EACH YEAR.

Also reported in that http://www.unt.edu/cedr/homelessreport.pdf">study is the fact that the homeless cost society $1,500 LESS in social services.

[Selatius]

13. This is just more propaganda spread by the conservative media

I've looked at both sides of the issue, and yes, there are fraudsters and freeloaders trying to steal, but most folks are honest people who have hit hard times.

[sandnsea]

14. Sick and dead laying in the streets

How would that be for tourism and attracting new business?

[radwriter0555]

15. Average age of people on welfare is 9. Ask your friends if they want 9

year old kids to work.

More than 70% of the people on welfare are CHILDREN. Indeed most of the 30% left are elderly or disabled.

[hollowdweller]

17. I've known lots of people on welfare

My one friend ran out her 5 year limit. Finally had to go to work. She has problems with depression.

Most of the people I know on welfare that DIDN'T go to work have had mental problems, or substance abuse issues, or IQ problems, or lived so far out in super poor rural counties without cars that it was hard to find a job. Sometimes all 3.

One thing is for sure. Almost nobody who could find a job or could hold one would want to be on welfare. At least in my state it would be almost impossibel to get by on it. Plus here if you don't have kids all you get is about 200 bucks worth of food stamps a month.

[unkachuck]

16. if your friends think the poor...

....have it MADE, encourge them to join their ranks!....I've always believed in a rich society like ours, it shouldn't have to cost you alot to be in poverty, poverty should be free....

....if I have to see most of my tax dollars handed to rich in one form or another, I don't mind seeing a few dollars handed to the poor....

[ultraist]

19. Exactly. It's despicable that 35 million Americans live in poverty

And shameful and dishonest to say that all of these people are lazy cheats.

People who buy into these myths are too lazy or decietful to consider all of the barriers that those in poverty face: racism, classism, lack of access to health care, mental illness, disablity, lack of access to employment, etc..

The real welfare whores are the CEOs making 20 million a year and taking corporate welfare. That is obscene.

[lonestarnot]

22. Very well said ultaist! Couldn't have done better myself! n/t

[cynatnite]

21. They only know about the few and far between who take advantage

We had to go one welfare when hubby got hurt. Workman's comp didn't help at all. He was in such bad shape that I stayed home to care for him and the kids. There were no options for us. I dare them to call us lazy. It provided temporary relief until we got back on our feet.

Also, welfare doesn't equate to free money.

Many of the people who are on it are required to do some service or take classes. This is dependent on which state you live in. It's different with every one of them.

They also don't take in account the large population of elderly who need the help of welfare or the disabled. The economy is still depressed and people are losing jobs. Sometimes welfare is not an option.

They see a lazy black woman with a dozen kids by different men. It's a stereotype which hurts the system.

They need to go to the welfare office and see the people that are there to get help.