I know you're venting, but my vent is that social programs make up a small amount of the federal budget and this stereotype is actually pretty harmful.
I wasn't venting about the federal budget, nor was I venting that all of my tax money goes towards social programs. I'm glad the programs are there to help those who need it. My vent was more about the unavailability of most social programs to the working poor if they
haven't had children.
As an example, my best friend and I worked the same job for the same pay, full time, for the same amount of time, both with one dependant, hers being a kid and mine being an adult. Living expenses (food costs, transportation, rent, etc) were similar, with hers being slightly lower as she and her kid lived with her mother and shared the bills.
One of us was eligible for food stamps, a $6000+ return on taxes (which may not be a lot to some, but for those of us who make under $20k a year, it's pretty huge) cash assistance and medicaid. Social programs took care of her entirely but I qualified for none. The only variable was that she'd had a kid.
When I found out I was pregnant last summer, I contacted the family services office and found out that I'd be eligible for medicaid, WIC, food stamps and that my child, when born, would be covered by medicaid also. The case worker urged me to apply for section 8 housing, which has a very long waiting list, but she mentioned that I'd be more likely to be prioritized because I was single and pregnant. When I lost my pregnancy, the opportunity for any and all assistance was taken away from me.
My whine wasn't about welfare queens popping out tons of kids and living off the system. That's not really my business, but even if it were, I couldn't call it abuse of a system that was put in place FOR THAT PURPOSE. My whine was that I am having trouble living, and I'm entirely unseen by the systems put in place to help poor people. Selfish stuff, really, and I'd apologize but I'm really not too sorry that people want to twist my "woe is me" vent into something harmful and malicious.
You want malicious stereotyping? Sure. I work in retail and I see the stereotypes flock in on the first of the month, raiding the walmart with their sixty billion kids and paying for multiple carts full of junk food with an EBT card, and their video games, movies, cartons of cigarettes and cases of beer with their actual bank card. I don't know every family or every situation, but dude I am in a grocery store five days a week for nine hours a day, and I'm able to notice patterns.
And it makes me kind of bitter. Because you ****ing bet I wish I could work my crappy job with my incomplete education and have my barely livable income heavily supplemented simply because I squirted out a kid I wasn't financially prepared to have. You bet I wish I could write off living expenses like food and rent and instead spend that now free cash on games, toys, fun stuff, booze and smokes... stuff everyone likes, but that poor people are expected to go without to make ends meet.
I didn't mean to end this post on such a negative note. Think maybe I'm too snarky and all-over-the-place for social interaction today, even over the internet.
unrelated vent: bipolar mood swings are not my favorite thing ever.
