Next time you get a Facebook entry or e-mail griping about how "easy" people on welfare have it...

[Archae]

Give them this link.

http://www.cracked.com/article_22004_5-surprising-insider-facts-about-welfare.html

This last one is oh-so-true.

#1. People on Welfare Are Treated Like Shit

[orpupilofnature57]

1. The same ass-holes that pay homage to the 1% .

[Enthusiast]

10. And they don't mind tax subsidies to the oil industry.

[roguevalley]

13. if they do it on a company system let their boss know

I got a nazi-like email about katrina people from a doctor at a hospital in Mississippi. I sent an email to management and he got shellacked. He deserved it.

[orpupilofnature57]

35. Good citizen !!!!

[Orrex]

2. When faced with that particular bit of cruel idiocy...

I always suggest that they quit their jobs and luxuriate in the welfare-funded easy life for a few years, to see how great it really is.

[AlbertCat]

17. BINGO!

A (not like these people) friend of mine who has lost his nursing job (which he is very good at) because of eye trouble and eye surgery has run out of unemployment while waiting to hear back from the 14+ interviews he's been on since he has been able to see to fill out the applications. He applied for food stamps and is arguing with his mortgage company.

He cried and cried..... (It made me so sad.... then mad.)

I'm giving him money for Xmas (which is no fun.... so I'm also gonna make him a shirt)

[treestar]

29. Exactly!

And when they call jail three hots and a cot, like it's there to take care of the homeless. Why don't they commit a crime and go then? If it's such an easy life there.

[yeoman6987]

3. I heard conservatives say they would rather go

Back to giving out government cheese and other foods instead of a stipen. However, I heard it is actually more expensive to have that program. The other thing is if they are buying lobster then they are not buying other food so really who cares. Once the 400 bucks is gone, it's gone until the 1st. Why should anyone get hyper about such things?

[Orrex]

4. Sadly, DU has had more than a few of such discussions

It's less common now, but not long ago there were a number of people more than happy to condemn poor people for failing to bootstrap themselves into prosperity.

It's tempting to think that only Conservatives can be so cruel, but history tells us otherwise.

[drmeow]

24. I think they get hyper

for two reasons. First, they think people are getting way more than $400 - enough money to buy lobster and all the other food, too - which can easily be disproven. Second, they think they are using the food stamps to buy lobster cause they have other money to buy other food - which is so illogical it hurts. I mean, if I'm gaming the system the last thing I'm going to do is obviously buy my luxury items with my food stamps. But, really, all of those "reasons" are just lipstick on a the pig that is "all the poor are morally undeserving and criminal and should suffer." They know THAT would be rejected but the argument that they are cheating won't be.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. They also think that recipients can just go get more money if they

run out at the end of the month. Not true, of course. Once you use up your allotment, that's it for the month.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I wish I could give this more than 1 rec.

[drmeow]

6. Unfortunately the people who need to read it

won't - or they will dismiss it as liberal propaganda. I've had arguments with an otherwise liberal friend on FB who claims to know people who are gaming the system. She knows I have a PhD in psychology so I give her all the psychology data on why her beliefs don't fit with everything we know about motivation and self esteem and how people feel about work and her response basically comes down to "but I know people who aren't like that so there are lots of people like the ones I know." She is particularly down on disability. It drives me nuts.

[daredtowork]

19. Someone always "knows" someone who is gaming the system

I think it's because they imagine that if there is a system there to be gamed, someone MUST be doing it - and they themselves would be doing it just so they wouldn't be a chump while others were getting away with it. Therefore if someone MUST be doing it, they "know" someone who IS getting away with it.

There's also the way urban myths usually spread: people read stuff on forums (with the bar as low as 4Chan, Reddit, and 9Gag - claiming that "smart people" like "doctors and lawyers" are on there) and then go spreading what they pick up via Twitter and Facebook...then the next thing you know it becomes an earworm that some "friend" or "relative" must have told you about.

Anyway - it seems like EVERYONE knows the Bonnie and Clyde of the Welfare System. But, sadly, they probably also have a friend or family member who needed to fall back on the welfare system at some point. It's sad how willing they are to pick apart the very safety net that their friends and neighbors have needed, and perhaps they themselves will need some day.

btw, the most important part of that article is that the bureaucrats, managers, middlemen (including doctors) are the ones that tend to commit welfare fraud, and are siphoning the money out of the system before it actually gets to the people who need it.

[drmeow]

22. Exactly -

this friend's husband has been unemployed on and off multiple times and collected unemployment benefits but "he's different". I think I'm getting through to her but it is slow going. Of course, the friend who is alive today because of Medicaid who is an extreme right winger is completely unreachable. I've given up on her and we just don't discuss politics

[AlbertCat]

20. Of course there are people gaming the system....duh!

Can you say "human behavior"? But is it a vast majority? Or even a little majority?

I always say: "Y'know... people shop lift from stores every day! Maybe we should shut down all stores!"

I don't think I know anyone gaming the Welfare system, but I know several people gaming the Disability thing.... because they are very capable physically and mentally of doing SOMETHING. Some not working while waiting to get on Disablility. But I would never entertain the idea of getting rid of it! Maybe some more oversight.

Anyhoo.... the other thing to point out is anecdotal evidence is USELESS.

[drmeow]

23. I know

That's why I gently throw my PhD in her face with stuff like "numerous studies show ..." along with "I'd rather deal with a few cheaters than see huge numbers of deserving people starve" - I think I'm getting through to her a bit. But she is otherwise so liberal that I get frustrated.

[Scuba]

28. The difference between liberals and conservatives ...

... is that conservatives would rather see 10,000 truly needy people suffer to assure that one slacker doesn't get benefits that he or she doesn't deserve. Liberals disagree.

[drmeow]

34. Pretty much

We liberals think one or two slackers getting benefits they don't deserve is a small price to pay to ensure that 10,000 truly needy people are helped - of course, we liberals would prefer to see a living wage and equal opportunity so that there wouldn't be any truly needy people because we not only recognize that that is the compassionate and civilized thing to do but that it helps all of us in the long run. For all their fiscal conservative BS, conservatives are penny wise, pound foolish.

[blur256]

7. #3 is the one

that assholes will never understand. This is also why we don't have single payer. They don't understand why helping all people be in a better place and healthier will benefit everyone in the long run.

[madamesilverspurs]

8. Some #5s for ya ...

There was the time when the grocery checker at the express checkout sent me to another register because he said my oxygen tank (which was in the child seat) put me over the number-of-items limit, then laughed as he told the next person in line that he knew it didn't count but he just hated waiting on 'welfare queens'. By the time I finished paying for my groceries and got to the manager to complain, someone who had overheard the exchange had already been there; the manager was extraordinarily kind and horrified at the employee's behavior, and the cashier found himself among the unemployed.
---
At a time when I was bed-ridden my legally appointed designee took my list to the store and used my stamps to purchase my groceries. This was back when the stamps were still paper coupons, and the transactions were obvious to other customers. One of those other customers followed my friend to the parking lot and loudly berated her as she loaded my groceries into her car, yelling that no one driving such a nice car should be allowed to 'abuse' the food stamps paid for by his taxes. She knew better than to argue with the idiot, but damned if it didn't make me sad that someone doing a huge favor for me would be treated so horribly.
---
My license plates permit me to park in the designated 'handicap' spaces. If the lot is empty enough to allow for it, I'll enter a space and pull through to the next aisle so that I don't have to back up when it's time to leave; turning around to look is doable but difficult and sometimes painful. On one notable occasion I was preparing to pull forward when another vehicle came tearing down the aisle and pulled into that spot even though several others were available. The driver got out and strutted over to my car where he informed me that it pissed him off that people like me took unfair advantage, because "I'm not the one who made you crippled". In other words, he felt himself abused by my difficulties.
---
Dining out has been extremely rare for years. On one of those rare occasions I was approached by a successful businessman who was aware of my circumstances. In front of the entire restaurant he screamed that I had no business expecting his taxes to provide my benefits if I was going to so blatantly squander his generosity (and I cleaned that up to share it here). My companions tried to explain that they were treating me for my birthday, but he was determined to have his say.
---
A lengthy book could be written detailing the experiences in dealing with caseworkers (nowadays they're "technicians&quot who view clients as toxic and treat us accordingly.

[treestar]

33. I really hate the ones who emphasize that THEY are paying for it

Like they are personally doing so. Their taxes pay for a lot of other things and probably only a minuscule amount to welfare. It's so snobby - Enjoy your welfare, I have to work hard for it. Then why don't they offer the poor jobs? They act like there is no such thing as a bad job market.

[Enthusiast]

9. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch!

I have a special dislike for people that demonize welfare recipients.

[Archae]

11. I'm still pissed off also at "60 Minutes..."

For that one-sided hack job they did on SSI benefits.

Especially since I'm on SSI, and get food stamps!

[Enthusiast]

12. I can only imagine how you feel.

The world is full of these right wing assholes. I am so weary of them. I refuse to watch one moment of 60 Minutes. I wonder how many viewers they lost after that particular episode.

[daredtowork]

16. In CA ppl on SSI don't get food stamps

Which is a double disaster when their cost of living tends to be higher than other places in the country. One of the reasons I'm very lucky that the ACA is helping me, and I'm hopefully not looking at a future on SSI now is that SSI doesn't cover a fraction of "affordable" rents for a ROOM in this area. In theory I would be forced to be move from the place I've lived for over 25 years and where I have all my community ties. Probably to some middle-of-nowhere rural area. And since I can't drive, I would be completely isolated there.

[daredtowork]

14. Thank you!

Those points needed to be made in a place Millennials will read.

[AlbertCat]

15. how "easy" people on welfare have it...

Only people who WANT to be on welfare say this.

[valerief]

18. Excellent piece. nt

[Dr. Xavier]

21. Then again there is all that free cheese...

which is provided by the same huge diary agri-business farms, which accept government welfare to keep diary prices artificial and which drove the family owned farm to the brink of extinction.

[Warpy]

25. Nobody dares to send bullshit like that to me

I was on welfare for six months the first time my kidneys conked out. I went back to work against medical advice as soon as I found a job I could sit down and do (I blacked out if I had to stand up for more than 10 minutes). I've worked through episodes of failure since then because living on welfare is such a harsh life--and that was in the late 60s when it was more generous.

Welfare is hell. Anyone with the ability to get off it does so ASAP.

Shaming abandoned women and children who need help to get back on their feet is one of the worst sins that conservatives commit. Shaming the disabled is almost as bad. I'm glad there isn't an afterlife--I'd hate to spend mine anywhere near any of these shamers and blamers.

Kudos to Cracked. They hit the nail on the head again.

[Martin Eden]

26. Thanks for the link! n/t

[rickford66]

27. Years ago we were foster parents.

When we had an infant to care for, we qualified for WIC. We had to go to a town hall and fill out some paper work. There was always a crowd. A crowd of young white ladies with kids. We only did this a few times and decided it was easier to buy the stuff out of our monthly check. All of the money we received went for the kids. Some came to us with just a paper bag of belongings. When they left us, they left with everything bought for them. One group of three siblings that we had for a couple years left with a pickup load of clothes and toys. We met other foster parents who did it for the money, but I had a decent job and my wife just wanted to do it. We adopted the very last one. A two day old who is 21 now and more than a handful.

[treestar]

31. Don't get number 2

You have to volunteer work to get welfare?

[GoCubsGo]

32. Bookmarked. Thanks.

The next time my brother starts with this shit, I'll have it handy. The last time, he hit all the myths: Fancy car, drugs, buying shrimp and steak with the food stamps, boyfriend living in the house, illegal immigrants...

And, may I add that these same attitudes tend to hold true for those on unemployment, as well, including #1.