Continued Discussion

A few things to add to my previous post:

Can you say, “fortuitous timing?” This whole Romney/47% thing offers a great opportunity to continue this discussion. I need a bit of time to digest it all before I feel prepared to comment specifically about that.

I’m really don’t want this site to turn into some huge awful political argument about re-distribution of wealth or class warfare. My chief goal is to encourage a more civil, gentle dialogue, in which folks do not automatically demean and dismiss a good-size group of people. This is not about political correctness, it is about kindness.

Here’s something – Matt and I do not consider our family to be poor or disadvantaged. We are fortunate in many ways, including financially. We’ve scaled back on everything since I “stopped working,” and are very careful about everything, but still our savings have dwindled and although we are still “making it,” our resources have declined significantly. We will likely not qualify next year when we would be required to re-certify (complicated reasons), and that’ll be fine. Our children will eat and our medical bills will be paid, albeit slowly.

I suppose I am trying to show you that you may (or probably) know someone who does or has received some type of assistance, because lots of folks struggle at some point in their lives, but I can’t seem to stop myself from defending us and our choice to avail ourselves of these benefits.

And in my attempt to show you that we realize how fortunate we are, and that compared to the problems other families face we are even more fortunate, I hope I don’t seem to be distancing myself from those other families too much. Because that would be the exact opposite point from the one I am trying to make.

(1) Assuming that the terms “welfare queen” and “welfare cheat” could be loosely defined as someone who “could work but chooses not to,” those people exist, I guess. It would be naïve of me to say that no one takes advantage of “the system,” because/but people do that to every system ever created, right? Crooked government contractors screw the government out of plenty of money, people coast through the last few years of their job – working as little as possible until the retirement checks start coming, other people in all types of job settings get promoted to positions and salaries they “don’t deserve” because of family connections and office politics. Wherever something is established, there are going to be folks who try to get around those requirements.

(2) I have used a lot of quotation marks in both entries, and they usually indicate my belief that when a lot of folks use these phrases with certainty and conviction, they don’t really know what they mean, or at least couldn’t subject their definition to scientific scrutiny. Again, I’m betting that a lot of people who generously hand out criticism on this issue, do not really know anyone who fits the ultimate stereotype – a young (non-Caucasian) woman who “could work (there I go again)," but “chooses” instead to continue having children she “knows she can’t afford.”

How do you know all this, exactly? How do you know that TANF/Food Stamp recipient X really can work but chooses not to? How on Earth can you know, with confidence, the childbearing intentions of someone you have never met? I am a social worker, for heaven’s sake, and I have talked to hundreds of people who receive government assistance of some sort or another, and I can honestly say that I don’t believe there are hordes of Those People out there – that if you took the time to actually engage in dialogue with folks, you would likely end up admiring their resilience, creativity, intelligence and wit. 

Or maybe you wouldn’t. But I often do.

Oh, and, I am not naïve. I just look at things differently.

And if your main worry is that Those People don’t manage their money effectively, do not take “full responsibility” for their lives, and aren’t living up to their human potential – you see where I’m going with this, right? How many of us have fit in one or all of those categories, sometimes for significant periods of time, over the span of our lifetimes?

(3) Who decides who the “deserving poor” are? I’m not quite sure what some people have in mind, but it seems to be that you should be working 60 – 80 hours a week, you have to have made lots of responsible decisions in your life but you’re just not making all your bills right now, and that your family is on the verge of Depression-era misfortune and hardship, before you get anything. It’s an interesting question, and obviously someone has to make a decision at some point, about what the income guidelines are and how much assistance will be provided.  Again, my point here is not so much arguing about the existence of government programs, but urging people to be more considerate and kind in their discussions.

(4) Even if you are not one of the “deserving poor,” even if you “probably could work but aren’t,” again, is criticizing and shaming and denigrating you really the best way to get you to work? That might ultimately be better for the bottom line, but I am pretty sure it is not one of those things Jesus would do.