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Originally Posted by avhg1
I think all non-emergency assistance should be on a loan basis, some thing like tax and payment deferred student loans. People that take advantage of assistance would view it differently if they knew they had to pay it back.....Be thankful for what you have and if you want more, get off YOUR ASS and work harder!
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This is assuming that all people have the middle-class luxuries you're used to having: health, social support, backup resources.
A lot of people who end up on public assistance have mental health problems that are untreated because they don't have the education to seek treatment, or they don't have the insurance to pay for it. If you're poor, for whatever reason, it's harder to climb out. If my car breaks down, I have a credit card. If my credit cards get out of hand, I have home equity. If I lose my job, I have benefits and disability insurance. Not all people have the wherewithal to manage an extra job (transportation becomes an issue, as does job availability); not all people can handle the impact of a catastrophic illness, or any kind of mental illness (thank god my employers, who research mental illness, were understanding of my depression after my brother died!); not all people are able-bodied, educated, have any kind of skills, or can pull themselves up by their own fucking bootstraps. I get sick of this middle-class "why can't they just help themselves" attitude, as well as the "I did X so why can't you?" I see no problem with keeping a FREE social safety net in place to catch those who, for whatever reason, can't catch themselves. As a society, we have often created the context in which individuals find themselves making choices, good or bad. And it strikes me that as a society we have both a humanitarian and a practical interest in making sure that these people have some kind of structure for getting back on their feet, without indenturing them for the sin of having fallen on hard times.