entitlement issues

An aquaintence  recently started ragging on about people that are not working  who get government welfare and fat tax refunds.  She was upset because she and her husband had to pay more taxes this year than the last while some unemployed people are getting welfare and tax refunds paid for by her taxes.  She said those welfare people are making a "lifestyle choice" and was saying they should be cut off from their government help.  She went further and said student loans should go directly to the school and that all students should be forced to live on campus. 


She has never been laid off nor has her husband so she has NO CLUE what the double digit unemployment means to real people in this country that are having to try to feed and clothe themselves and their children.  She is one of the many lucky people that have had it fairly easy.  Because they have not suffered the job losses and downsizing, these lucky people have a lack of  compassion. They are unwilling to see that they are lucky; instead they have a sense of superiority that is unfounded.  They are just LUCKY and that's it.  Luck is an unfair thing and people in this country are unwilling to admit that they have luck because we have been brainwashed from birth to believe that "you can make your own destiny."  That is the biggest lie; right up there with the "be yourself" lie. 

It is time for those lies to STOP.  People that are successful are not successful only because of hard work and effort;  if that were so millions more people would be successful than actually are.  People that are unsuccessful are not so because they are inherently lazy or flawed;  they aren't.  The truth is, hard work is not always rewarded;  I have seen that  and experienced that all my life.  People like that aquaintence need a real hard awakening in life or they will never see.  We are a nation that blames the very people that need help the most;  we do that so we don't have to help them because people are greedy and stingy.  People don't want to give.  This is, unfortunately,  the American way.  That is unfortunate and a tragedy for those millions of families that are barely living and those that are homeless and hungry through no fault of their own. 

The working poor comprise the largest segment of welfare recipients and there are even more working poor that don't qualify for welfare benefits because they "make too much"  according to government poverty guidelines that never take into account the area in which they live or the differences in cost of living.  These are the people that cannot "just move somewhere else affordable"  because they have no savings.  They don't make enough to cover all expenses so they have to decide between paying rent and feeding their kids.  Even working two and three jobs doesn't cover daycare expenses, shelter, food, clothing, paper goods, gas and insurance or other transportation costs.  I challenge people like that aquaintence to live on the government poverty level income with her two kids and see if she can do it.  I know she can't. 

If this aquaintence would just educate herself, she might realize that for the majority of welfare recipients, it is not a "lifestyle choice" for who would choose to see their kids go hungry or without health care or without the basics?