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It blows my mind just how successful america was convincing everyone that welfare queens/ abusing welfare is so easy.
- Thread starter nsilvias
- Start date
I work in government assistance distribution and for the most part it is incredibly easy to game the system. That can vary program to program of course.
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What statistics are you referring to? Some other things to consider is a lot of people who need help are too proud to ask for it or don't know how to go about getting it.
Edit: I should also say the welfare queen thing is definitely a tiny minority of people but those particular people who do this have pretty intricate side hustle schemes going. Pretty impressive actually lol.
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Is it though? America was founded on the concept that white people are better than everyone else. Racism isn't just a part of who this country is, it is the country. Veneers only hide the decay for so long. It pokes through when the majority starts feeling threatened because they can't oppress openly.
Capitalism is inherently hierarchically and If you grow up believing this system is 'right' and/or 'fair' and you work super hard but still live a shitty life the idea of a 'Welfare Queen Problem' becomes easy to swallow. If the system is correct and you are a good person but still suffering under the system the problem must be people who cheat the system.
Yep. Also loaded in the way "Obamacare" as a phrase was by suggesting the benefits black and brown people get are different from the benefits white peoples get so that bigots feel justified vilifying "welfare queens" not grokking that getting rid of those benefits means getting rid of their own at the same time.
Social work locations are incredibly understaffed. Just by knowing that much, it probably takes a long time for people to get the assistance they need, but at the same time, other people will also have an easier time gaming the system due to that lack of staff.
Racists will believe any negative thing you tell them about black and brown folk. Something something, Lyndon B Johnson.
It's not hard to believe that people would believe propaganda primarily targeting black people and abusing white america's notion that it's okay to suffer as long as black people are suffering more, no. Not hard at all to believe that.
Back in 08 I got into an argument (as a teenager so admittedly I probably wasn't the best at expressing it) with an old woman who said she didn't want Obama's healthcare plan (which btw was never single-payer, even when he was campaigning) because she didn't want to pay for all the sick people's health insurance. I pointed out that any kind of health insurance is built around the healthy people subsidizing the costs for the sick ones, and that if she had Medicare she was already doing that for literally every senior citizen in the country. She just told me I was naive and that was that.
She also griped that Michelle Obama was racist because she believed black people were still worse off than white people, so the obvious answer here is that she was just trash.
Bingo. LOTS of racists in America who think black people have super powers.
Ronald Reagan was able to successfully brand "welfare queens" as irresponsible Black women and kept repeating it.
Since most White Americans grow up separate from Black Americans (and as a result, have no meaningful insight or relationships with them) it was an easy sell.
Since most White Americans grow up separate from Black Americans (and as a result, have no meaningful insight or relationships with them) it was an easy sell.
It's horrible. In the 80s Reagan and the Republicans gaslit so many people into thinking that minorities were out using foodstamps to buy cars and cocaine or whatever. When I was a teenager in the 90s I got a job as a cashier in a grocery store and families would come through my line with their WIC card (Women Infants and Children), and they would have like a half gallon of milk, a can of beans, and a head of broccoli or some shit. They would always look so embarrassed, and it still makes my blood boil to think about a bunch of pampered rich sociopathic fuckfaces making things so hard for honest people trying to feed their freaking babies.
As somebody who does social work as my second job at a scatter homeless shelter, for every 10 families we get in here only 1, MAYBE, are actually here because of a hardship.
It's usually people grabbing homebase (a 10k check with a year of all bills and rent paid for in a new apartment) or some sort of government grant, and then when they use it up they move to another State and rinse and repeat.
It's usually people grabbing homebase (a 10k check with a year of all bills and rent paid for in a new apartment) or some sort of government grant, and then when they use it up they move to another State and rinse and repeat.
Foodstamps/EBT is entirely easy to obtain. Welfare, disability, hell - even the General Assistance side of EBT is hard to get (Foodstamps & GA are on the same state sponsored debit card.)
I know I'm missing a few things here, but studies back this up, people don't really abuse the system at large. It's mostly a myth. Of course it does happen but it's not as rampant as people would make it seem.
I know I'm missing a few things here, but studies back this up, people don't really abuse the system at large. It's mostly a myth. Of course it does happen but it's not as rampant as people would make it seem.
I've told a lot of people off when they make comments about others having a lot of money from assistance while they work 40+ hours a week and can't afford lobster and steak like welfare people can. Really grinds my gears to hear people talk about others because of what is in their grocery basket.
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You can convince idiots of any old thing that reinforces their world view, especially if it gives miserable people someone lesser to look down on
Even though there are people take advantage of it, we really shouldn't care - because there are many more that do not. I'd much rather have a system that has a little bit of funds going to the wrong place while other benefit than one where there's absolutely no social safety nets. At one point in my life, I'd not have been able to eat if it wasn't for such initiatives.
I grew up on welfare, and I was so ashamed, that I stopped going to the store for my mom if she was going to ask me to use foodstamps or WIC.
I know how that feels.
Some programs are easier to game than others, but it also depends on who you are. I have known people on both sides, gov employees and people using the program, and I have heard some stories. There is no real solution though since most of the big "legends" are about people with kids and its a thin line between punishing them and harming the kids.
With that said ain't nobody living the highlife on any welfare program I am familiar with. For example, I have heard so many stories about people on food stamps buying steak and lobster for every meal. Straight-up bullshit.
Racism and "fuck you got mine" are a powerful combination in this country.
With that said ain't nobody living the highlife on any welfare program I am familiar with. For example, I have heard so many stories about people on food stamps buying steak and lobster for every meal. Straight-up bullshit.
Racism and "fuck you got mine" are a powerful combination in this country.
Same. I have little interest in stalking and punishing those struggling the most and trying to take advantage of the few resources they have at the bottom. Particularly when this situation only exists due to abuses of power and resources at the highest levels of class. We could make it so that people don't take advantage of welfare but that battle is a fight against the actual enemies, capitalism and the 1%, and not "welfare queens".
Fox "News" and lying republicans will tell you whatever you need to hear to hate the brown folks. They didn't earn it, they are lazy, and they are prolly illegal. Besides, if God loves them they would have more money. Try harder libs! By the way, if you are poor and white we are there for you friend. A hand up, not a hand out!
It's a national embarrassment that we don't just feed kids when they are at school. It's the lowest quality food and we act like someone is getting away with something if a 3rd grader gets a grade D hamburger for free. They spend their entire waking life at school or travelling to and from it. Any kid who needs it should get a free breakfast and lunch. And not in some bullshit way where they get embarrassed by getting a different meal, or they have to stand in a different line or whatever. Make a me so crazy.
Are you old enough to remember the old coupon books they used to have for food stamps? My earliest memory of public embarrassment and shame was when my mom had to use those. It was such an improvement when they switched to the cards, but it never went completly away.
Yep. They were colorful af. I thought they were so much cooler than "regular" money. I didn't know any difference, since I saw more foodstamps than dollar bills, until a friend of mine made fun of me for using foodstamps to buy some breakfast on the way to school one morning.
Thank goodness for the cards now. I remember the interviewer for my case for foodstamps was mega rude to me, like almost angry. It was so weird to me. The human race is so against itself it baffles me
Ditto. And back then, it wasn't a cute little discreet EBT card. It was that big ass booklet that looked like Monopoly money. I was always so embarrassed when we had to use it at the grocery store. I used to think the looks we got from people were in my head, but they were not. Not to mention the teasing at school when your well off classmates found out you were on food stamps.
Me and my ex had to rely on food stamps and government assistance for a really rough period in our marriage, but it would usually only cover us for three months, and it still wasn't enough because our monthly bills/needs were still higher than what I was bringing in, and she didn't have a job, and I was stuck in the QA tester cycle of irking for a few months, then being unemployed for months, then working for a few months, rinse and repeat. It was pretty impossible to pull ourselves out of the hole.
On topic, this country is easy to sell on any concept that paints black and brown people as less than.
I don't think it makes me jaded. I love working with people so when we do get families who really do need the help, guiding them and watching them get back on their feet is extremely rewarding.
I just feel bad for many who choose social work as their main profession. The pay is extremely low and if you do this job well you have to be face to face with the worst of humanity at times.
It's thankless, it's grueling mentally, but it hasn't made me dislike people or the systems we have in place to try and help them.
Easiest trick in the book and it is working in the UK. Those "above us" convince us to punch downwards.
Indeed. And what makes it all the more infuriating is that you know the people most likely to believe that garbage, despite supposedly caring so much about fraud and people using "their" money, will also simultaneously be tye people least likely to care one way or the other tyst people like say Trump are defrauding taxpayers more with all his trips to goof courses and personal resorts that he forces Secret Service to pay for which in turn is on the taxpayers' dime, and all that other garbage he does, bevause, despite that equally being"their" money under their logic and you might be able to get a yeah it's bad out if then at most, it will never be with tye sane fervor because suddenly they really just don't care about "white collar" crime like that and while it might be bad, it also just shows how smart he isbsbd what a great business man he is, etc, etc, etc.
That's all to say that people's indifference to white collar crime like that, even in the circumstances where it does indeed involve "their" money under their logic, that people nonetheless are so comparatively indifferent to white collar crime than to the subject of "welfare queens" and supposed "SNAP/WIC" fraud, that one of those constantly gets these people fured up like nothin' else and the other gets indifference at best prvudes better proof thsn anything that the supposed "fraud" and welfare queens aren't the point to begin with.
The cruelty is the point, as it usually is in these situations.
That's all to say that people's indifference to white collar crime like that, even in the circumstances where it does indeed involve "their" money under their logic, that people nonetheless are so comparatively indifferent to white collar crime than to the subject of "welfare queens" and supposed "SNAP/WIC" fraud, that one of those constantly gets these people fured up like nothin' else and the other gets indifference at best prvudes better proof thsn anything that the supposed "fraud" and welfare queens aren't the point to begin with.
The cruelty is the point, as it usually is in these situations.
Agreed in principal to what you mean, but please don't make "America" synonymous with "a relatively small fraction of American conservative assholes." America still widely believes in government social programs that you're describing, despite the never ending assault on them by American conservatives.
No, just something I saw once. Did I miss the point of this thread? If so, then disregard my post.
This is among the most tiring shit in the discourse.
No political party wants to solve the problem of poverty because they all need to keep a baseline of poor workers to exploit indefinitely. Everything that follows is a consequence of inequal wealth distribution under capitalism, including "welfare queens". Forget what we have learned about generation trauma, poverty and mental health over the last 50 years, none of the stigma or resentment towards the poor has gone away.
No political party wants to solve the problem of poverty because they all need to keep a baseline of poor workers to exploit indefinitely. Everything that follows is a consequence of inequal wealth distribution under capitalism, including "welfare queens". Forget what we have learned about generation trauma, poverty and mental health over the last 50 years, none of the stigma or resentment towards the poor has gone away.
Yeah I get a whole $650 for disability. Rolling in the money with rent being $2,000. I don't know that I qualify for food assistance.