Are These True Life Examples Enough To Provide Evidence of One Huge Problem We Have In America?

Question

ALL are 100% true life examples based on firsthand experiences)

Example 1:
A friend of mine had her first son at age 14 and her daughter at age 16. They have two different fathers. She is now 20 years old and makes about $9.00 an hour. She rents an apartment and receives about $500 a month in food stamps along with getting her daycare for her daughter paid for and after school care for her son paid for. Along with those, she receives an amount of money (not sure how much, probably around 200 a month?) of welfare to do whatever she wants with. Yesterday she called and told me she bought an $100 digital camera with her welfare money. Also, she gets her nails and toenails done about twice amonth as well as her hair done about once a month. Yet all the while she claims how "broke" she is. I remember she called me and told me she'd be getting an extra (unspecified) amount of money for food stamps because the stimulus bill was passed. Hooray for Obama!

Example 2:
Living across the hall from the friend mentioned above is a woman with 3 children and no father in sight. She does not work and recieves Section 8 (basically her rent is completely paid for), food stamps, and welfare money probably totaling around $1000 a month. Keep in mind, she does absolutely nothing.

Example 3:
A woman I work with is pregnant with her 5th or 6th child (can't remember), with at least 3 fathers involved. She proudly boasts that she receives $800 a month in food stamps. 

Example 4:
The father of a woman's child I know is 23 years old, does not have a job, or live on his own. He partly stays with his mother, grandmother, and random girlfriends who take him in. He has two children by two different women, and pays child support for neither. He went to the state and, since he has no permanent resident or job, qualified for "emergency foodstamps" and receives around $300 a month and uses them for himself and his friends to eat while he lives rent/bill free. As a side note, the mother of his son does not qualify for government assistance because she makes too much money. The mother of his daughter is the woman listed in example # 1.

All the while CEO's making six figures a year are demonized. Why is doing the wrong thing rewarded in this country while doing the right thing is punished by being taxed to the ceiling to pay for these things? Yes, I believe in helping others out. However, why can't this be done privately by donation and not controlled by the government? Think: ASPCA except for people.

Griggnax · Accepted Answer

Have you been grocery shopping lately?  $800 a month to feed 5 or 6 kids isn't a lot of money (example #3).

$1000 a month to pay for all living expenses for 3 kids is not a lot of money (example #2).

Example #1 - earns $9/hour (which is roughly $1440 before taxes), gets $500 for food and $200 for welfare, so that's around $2000 a month, to provide for a family of 3.  That's not a lot of money.

These people you cite are not living in the lap of luxury.  If you actually believe that's a "reward", you have a warped sense of what money can actually buy these days.

delina_m · Answer

The biggest problem we have in America today is people beliving the lie of "rugged Individualism" and allowing ourselves to get so detached from eachother that we do not care what becomes of our neighbor as long as we are o.k.

Thanks to the banking system in this country debt can never ever be paid off by everyone. Because all money ever created comes from the Federal Reserve and they create only principal but want it paid back with interest there are not enough dollars in existence to EVER ever pay back the interest. Therefore someone somewhere is ALWAYS in debt. the game is rigged

Another way the game is rigged is the "natural rate of unemployment" according to this theory discovered by Nobel prize Milton Friedman the natural rate of unemployment is between 5 and 7% as we approach employment rates greater than 95% the economy starts to "overheat" which would cause inflation. At that moment the Fed rises interests which "cool" it and thus unemployment rises.Which means someone somewhere is ALWAYS left without a job

We can not in good conscience blame people who are left holding the short end when they get pushed to the fringes of a rigged system so that 95% of us are o.k.

The least we could do is make sure to at least provide the programs that mitigate the consequences of such system.

? · Answer

Looks like a bunch of missing fathers, to me. I'm a single mom, btw. I have one. We do not get food stamps and although my child has a permanent disability, we don't qualify for that because I own too much. Bottom line is I'm self-employed and pay taxes. Obama is not concerned about tax-payers, so you can put welfare reform on the very bottom of political concerns for a few more years.

balloon buster · Answer

I've met a few like that also. Only cure I can think of for it is, women on welfare can have one child, and their tubes get tied, hopefully reversibly when they can pay for it themselves. DNA is run and when the father comes into the system, his tubes are tied. And, while on welfare, they forfeit the right to vote. Get it back when they repay the money.
Anybody got any other ideas?

Anonymous · Answer

You asked this question word for word not long ago (maybe not word for word since I don't remember example 4 but that could be because I quit reading when I answered this last time).

My answer at that time was that the ASPCA does not save all dogs.  Your response was that they are no kill except with disease or aggressive.

grump56 · Answer

So we have welfare bums and corporate welfare executives that, with their wages, drive up  prices.  So?  Which is hurting you most?  You decide.

Anonymous · Answer

what state do you live in? those totals sound REALLY high?

but I think welfare abuse is a problem... but I still support welfare...

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Are These True Life Examples Enough To Provide Evidence of One Huge Problem We Have In America?

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