In Florida the percentage of illegal drug users is 8%. I thought Rick Scotts whole rational for this was welfare recipients were more likely to be drug users. Now that he’s been proven wrong he’s going to stop the drug testing right?
Fuck no. This shit appeals to righties and baggers. They believe what their heart tell them even when the statistics prove they are wrong.
Part of it is ,in America, we tend to demonize the poor as having some moral failures causing them to be needy. There has to be some reason they are in trouble. Because if there is not, then it could happen to me. They must be lesser people and deserve what has happened to them.
It would help you understand my post better if you read it with a healthy dose of sarcasm. 
I know lots of folks on “welfare”. Not one of them receives ONE SINGLE PENNY in cash. They get food stamps, subsidized housing if they are very, very, very lucky, and maybe some heating assistance in the winter.
Most are trying to get by on minimal Social Security and SSDI payments (a system they paid into, not welfare checks) of around $700 per month, plus $200 per month in food stamps.
I can assure you that $900 per month doesn’t pay for much when it comes to hookers and blow.
I would like to know who has a $200 a day cocaine habit (aka, a $72,000 a year habit) that is able to qualify for ANY government assistance. This person does not exist. More likely the person has a $20 a day crack habit and barely any income…and needs help!
When you know so little about both drugs AND welfare systems, you should keep your friggin’ trap shut about so-called “reform”.
How would I know that?
I thought it was over the top enough to be pretty obvious, and even if it wasn’t, that was why I told you it was sarcastic with a smiley face.
With some of the rightys around here, you can not go over the top too far. I don’t show a smiley face.
I have been very actively looking for work for the last two months and EVERY job I applied to wants you to take drug test.
The main reason I gather is for legal reasons. They don’t want to be accused of discrimination. If one job in the company has no need for a drug test, say stocking toliet paper and one job does have a need, say driving a car, it’s easier to test both than to defend a lawsuit saying your discriminating.
I don’t think that is the reason since “car driver” is not a protected class and they can discriminate that way all they want legally.
Yeah, that’s definitely not it.
I doubt they test the execs.
…snrk…
Sorry, but there is no such thing as a $20 a day crack habit. Twenty bucks just doesn’t go very far, crack-wise.
I could have sworn I posted on this thread but I can’t find anything.
I am on welfare. TANF, or in Tennessee at least we call it Families First. I just signed up a few weeks ago and before the end of the month I had to be signed up in a job readiness program or have a job. I get 140 dollars a month plus a 15 dollar gas card every week as long as I stay in compliance. Right now being in compliance for me means making sure my little girl is up to date on shots and stays in school. I have to have 30 hours of work, job search and up to 10 hours of school a week. I have to turn in a book at the end of every week. This was the end of my first week in job readiness class at BRIDGES and I feel like it’s really helped me. I had help making a resume and Fed-Ex came out and did mock interviews.
My class has about thirty women in it. Most of them are young and not being very responsible about the opportunity they have been offered here. They are late for class or just outright miss it. They are smart mouthed and bitch about every minute they have to sit in class. Several of them are on their last chance, they’ve screwed up so many times but they seem to have such a strong sense of entitlement it shocks me. I don’t know if they’re on drugs and I don’t care. I think drug use should be less of a concern than the attitude I’ve seen here.
I am not really against drug testing and I’ll gladly take one myself as long as it doesn’t involve needles, but I don’t think it will reduce the welfare rolls one bit. Because there WILL BE AN OUT. There will be drug counselors. There will be classes on not doing drugs. There will be appeals and cheaters that know how to bypass those piss tests. I think more attention should be spent on helping the children of these people who will just not do the work you have to do to receive the benefits.
My counselor at BRIDGES was a 40 year old drug addict who lost custody of her child then landed in prison when someone offered her a chance to get an education. She took it. She’s in her sixties now and holds a PhD. She inspired me. But some of those girls around me were rolling their eyes and checking their watches the entire time she lectured. It’s **that **attitude that needs to be addressed in my opinion, not a drug test that only addresses a symptom of a much larger problem.
The out is that parents who fail can name another person to receive the benefits in their name on behalf of their child.
Snerk yourself buddy. Do you know any crack heads? I do, and none of them spend freaking 72,000 a year, they have never seen 72,000 dollars their entire LIFETIMES. I’m obviously closer to the right figure with my $20 a day figure than captain conservative with his BS unsubstantiated claim that crack heads spend $200 daily on rock (I don’t even MAKE 200 a day and I could afford a crack habit way better than any of the addicts I know).
But since I’m not just talking out of my ass, here’s an actual study about the costs of drug use (warning, PDF): https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/207147.pdf
Obviously scientific studies of drug use are going to be very hazy and vary by region, but:
That is $49 a day, keep kidding yourself crack heads spend 72 freaking thousand dollars a year of welfare checks on crack. I stand by my assertion that there is no such thing as a $200 a day crack habit (for very long), and even if there was it’s not coming from welfare.
I wish I could edit my last sentence there. I am sure there IS $200 a day crack habits, there are some wealthy druggies and celebs who do whatever drugs they can get their hands on. But the people who we are talking about, fictional drug users with a $200 a day ($72,000 a year) crack habit who are on welfare are just the new revamped version of the black mom with a cadillac welfare queen, it’s another myth conservatives try to belive is all the welfare system is so they can sleep at night as they vote to eliminate services for the people who need help most.
The “welfare queen” thing was a fabrication of Reagan that persist to this day. The NYT spent 6 months trying to locate some welfare queens for a story. They failed. But people still repeat Reaganisms like they are based in fact.
People are not getting rich and living like royalty on welfare. It just is not true.