I don’t think people are exactly clamoring to adopt a lot of the kids being supported by the welfare system. Taking the kids from their relatives and placing them in foster care (another system with lots of problems) for who knows how long doesn’t seem like a good idea.
I can’t believe how fucking disgusting and ignorant you all are. It’s just unreal. What kind of worthless piece of shit gets upset over (mostly imaginary) “welfare mothers” in this day and age? You people honestly believe this happens to the level of being a problem, don’t you? You have no fucking idea who the real welfare mothers are, do you? You just know that you’re better than somebody and it feels good to say nasty shit about them. I hate this fucking place so much, I’m going back on break. It’s going to give me a stroke, thinking about how you fucking people think of yourselves as the best and brightest, and how horrible and stupid most of you are.
You’ll be sorely missed.
Sweetie, I have worked in rental property management for over twenty years. I guarantee that I have known more “welfare bunnies” than you have. I post from experience.
If I feel superior to these welfare people, it’s because I think I am–I work for a living, dammit.
Anyone have a towel? I seem to be covered in spittle and my ears are ringing.
Buh-bye! waves
Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out…
Oh, dahlin’ – don’t EVAH change!
You know, I can’t help but shake my head at people who get their panties in a bunch over welfare, either. Of all the things that my tax dollars are used for, feeding the poor comes in second on the list of worthy causes, right after providing public education, and I can’t fathom why people’s asses get so very chapped by it given the relatively miniscule amount of public monies spent this way, and the relatively tiny percentage of people who abuse it.
Ensign Edison, I’d appreciate it if going forward you didn’t come in here and encourage people to associate my reasonable position on this issue with the sort of foaming-at-the-mouth nonsensical vitriol you’re spewing. Thanks in advance!
But here’s where you have to understand the mentality of those whose asses are chapped.
The default assumption among many such people often seems to be that anyone and everyone on welfare is, by definition, an abuser of the system, and therefore fair game for ridicule and abuse. The willingness to extrapolate from a few aberrant cases to the system as a whole, and to all welfare recipients, is a common characteristic of these folks. They have run into a few “welfare bunnies” (lovely turn of phrase, isn’t it?), and feel qualified to expound bombastically about the morals of all welfare recipients.
But there is way more harm to the children and society at large in taking them from their families.
I don’t care about what’s fair to taxpayers. I care about what has the best chance of the best outcomes for these kids, and getting dropped into the foster system isn’t even in the ballpark.
I can understand people’s frustration, but let’s not try to come up with a cure that’s worse than twenty diseases.
Seriously.
Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Are there no orphanages? :rolleyes:
Exactly. The point of all of this isn’t supposed to be some sort of punishment to the parents and kids (at least, not in my mind). The point is to make reforms of the system so that with a little team work between the person who needs help and society at large, they can make a better life for themselves and their kids. I don’t believe that most people who are on welfare want to be there…I think they just aren’t given the kind of help they need to see that life could be different for them. Just giving them money is only putting a bandaid on the problem.
Have you heard of this thing called Xanax? Really takes the edge off.
What mostly “chaps my ass” is the idea that somehow poverty excuses stupidity. I’m not against the welfare system, though I think its implementation in some instances leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a complicated issue that’s never going to have a neat solution.
And this I agree with entirely. I was on welfare for almost three years after my daughter was born. This was sixteen years ago, in Massachusetts. First of all, I’d like to point out that if I remember correctly, I received $480 per month, and $60 worth of food stamps. I wasn’t exactly living high.
Not that I felt entitled to more. On the contrary. But it baffled and frustrated me that (at the time, I don’t know about now) there was no program to apply that money to daycare, so that I could work. Indeed, had I gotten a job, ANY job, I’d have lost that $480/$60 per month. And given that *felons * can get a degree at taxpayer expense, I’m not sure why we can’t offer that same opportunity to young single mothers, rather than just handing them a check every month. Welfare would be a far better investment if we made it a bit less of a life-*ring * and more of a life raft. Give a girl a paddle, willya?
Very good points. We absolutely should start looking at welfare as an investment into the lives of these women and, through them, their children. The investment won’t always pay off, but that’s what investments are for–take big risks, have the potential for big rewards.
DianaG, that’s exactly the kind of thing that makes me crazy. Why in holy hell should they incentivize you NOT to work? Why can’t you at least have a part-time hourly job, and supplement it with welfare, so you at least have a shot of getting ahead? I’m not much of a conspiracy nut, but it almost seems like a plot to keep poor people down & out.
Then this entire thread was worth it! does the happy dance, sings some song beginning with “Ding dong!..” 
Quoth, good on you. Tolerably few people round these parts have the ability to say “I was wrong” in any shape or form, still less with dignity. Would you consider subscribing? There seems to be a vacancy. 
Shhh - they might hear that you’re onto them. 
Actually, that would be an interesting thought exercise - looking at the state of welfare and working poor with the idea that whoever is actually in power is trying to keep poor people poor. I think we might have been making the mistake of thinking that the powers-that-be have any interest in actually helping poor people.
I don’t believe the myth that “family” is inherently best for children. Kids need unconditional love, boundaries, thoughtful discipline and stimulation. It doesn’t matter whether the person who gives it to them happened to squeeze them out of their vagina or not. I think the system creates too many problems by assuming that biological family should have priority over other people interested in caring for a child.
Here in Quebec, the Catholic Children’s Aid was handing children over to aunts and uncles without conducting background checks, and the outcomes were mixed - to put it mildly.