by startingover 18 Replies latest social current
I have worked with junior hi and hi school kids in the inner city of 3 metropolitan areas since 1987.
I serve on the board of two organizations providing free legal aid to those who can't pay.
My experience tracks with that of Lifer.
Nothing takes the place of personal responsibility... When it's not passed on generationally, humans sink into apathy.
Before I say anything, let me first say I know very well there are many people who deserve/need financial help from the government and they are not morally wrong for getting it. However.......
There is NO EXCUSE for the way some of these folks live and act. I've been in their apartments, I've helped them relocate from one apartment to the next so we can work in their unit. A large percentage of these folks live like animals.
Agreed. Have seen that as well. Some would say they don't know any better, but I have to doubt that. People have a basic instinct to be clean. Even if you're raised by wolves, if you've ever been to a mall, to school, or watched tv, you have seen cleanliness. You know what it is. And in case you don't know how to clean, tv bombards you with constant commercials for cleaning products. And in case you can't afford those products, guess what? Hot water and scrubbing does wonders. And in case you can't figure that out on your own, my state has a free training program for basic life skills.
I do recognize the very real lingering effects of slavery. However, I have to wonder if they are over-emphasized. Some of my ancestors came here with NO assets, worked their tails off 7 days a week, and they were able to make a decent life for themselves. And BTW, they and their peers were segregated at that time too...dark skinned Europeans. Had to sit in the back of the bus, drink from the 'colored' water fountain, harassed by police, beaten up by WASP locals, etc.
I do recognize the very real lingering effects of slavery.
I too, am tired of that excuse...Its been 100 years. Yes, it was a lot to get over, but I don't think people of my generation (mid 30s) should be using it as an excuse for poor behavior or not bettering yourself. Two words: Affirmative Action.
Most of the people I have known on welfare..and I have known quite a few, including myself during a time I lived in public housing...are just as clean as people not on welfare. This was a harsh article, and but he made a lot of good points in it too. It is true, you will find more ex convicts in many housing projects than you may in most middle class neighborhoods.
When he said welfare parasites...I believe he was only referring to those that are on welfare that are parasites...not to everyone on welfare.
There is definately a problem with the welfare system. There is no question of that. But I don't think being poor excuses anyone for raping, and the shootings, and the looting that occured that wasn't just for necessities.
The government still bears a lot of the blame in this situation...but I think the local and state governments and the ones that didn't evacute who could are more responsible for this than the federal government.
the majority of the Section 8 residents that moved in were foreigners
Rob, I think this really depends on where you live. The majority of people I personally knew that were on Section 8 were not foreigners, and most of them happened to be white. I myself had Section 8 for a couple of years. I lived in public housing for a year, then was lucky enough to get a Section 8 voucher. I say lucky, because at that time it was very hard to get a voucher.
At that time, they had a special program with Section 8 the gave you a huge incentive to better your situation. Basically, as your income went up, your portion of the rent went up. What the plan did was taken the difference that they were no longer paying, as the tenent rent portion went up, and put it in an account. If you were able to get off section 8 and other public assistance for at least a year, you could request the money in the account. I wanted to get off of welfare anyway, but it was a huge incentive, and motivated me even more. I got a check for $4000 when all was said and done. And I have not ever gone back on welfare.
I don't know if this was a country wide program, (I was under the impression it was), but it was stopped after a couple of years. I asked my section 8 case worker if a lot of people took advantage of this program. She signed and said, many did, but not as many as they hoped and expected. That boggled my mind.
I bring this up because there are people on welfare that are very content being on welfare. They don't look at it as a safety net, but a way of life. I don't believe this is the majority, but it is a high enough percent that we constantly see familes that generation after generation stay on welfare. It is a high enough percent so that welfare gets drained, and everyone on welfare, regardless of why they are on it, are all labeled as lazy.
Yesterday i gave legal advice to an 5th generation single parent welfare mom.
She has access to free GED programs, free skill-building programs, free 'at-home employment' programs, but chooses to not. She is quite intelligent, and freely admits she'd rather take the freebies than work (in any way) to change her situation.
She is white.
I don't think this is a racial issue.
I regularly help Hispanics with legal issues, but never the same sort. Hispanics have an INCREDIBLE work ethic; at least those to whom i am exposed. They have less money, but pass on an ethic to their children.
Just my experience...
I agree that the welfare state is a disaster but this has been talked about forever and nothing is done about it. While I realize that not all people on welfare are parasites I get queasy when I read articles from whites who are in denial about the whole thing.
What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. And they don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.
Excellent, article!!! I know what it states is true because for 16 years I lived in a city that had numerous housing developments. When I first moved to the city, I was a country girl, literally. Before that time I had not been exposed to dwellings so numerous, nor packed so closely together. My first reaction was why doesn't the city do something with these places........they are a MESS!!! Then, as time went by, I saw with my own two eyes the lack of any type of pride or responsibility on the part of the people who lived there. There were exceptions, of course, but, they were few and far between, and their unit stood out like a sore thumb amongst the rest. I watched as the units went thru city rejuvination projects........at least three times in the 16 years I lived there, and within a year, would revert to looking the same run down, torn up, spray painted dwellings that had been rejuvenated. And, as a Witness, working these territories again and again, I saw and heard first hand the attitudes of most of the people who lived there. Let me tell you that they were all a microcosm of everything that took place in the Superdome.......the weapons, the rapes, the fights, the illegal drugs and alcohol.........this article indeed speaks the truth about the mind set of people who live within a welfare state........our state finally got smart about ten years ago and toughened up the regulations on who could receive benefits and for how long. No longer could a woman stay on welfare and have child after child with numerous partners and receive state aid. Now, they have a two year limit and MUST find gainful employ as benefits stop after that time. Even the food programs and health care for women, infants and children were abused.........one of the directors of the local WIC program used to come and have the brochures and paper work printed at the print shop I worked in, and I heard first hand, stories of abuse of infant formula, such as selling it for drugs, as well as mothers not bothering to keep the appt.'s booked, or arriving late and expecting to be seen. I personally work with a woman who's mom was on welfare for decades.....and she has NEVER used welfare. She has three children who she has raised all by herself, working two jobs, and even paid for a wedding for one of them, and this past summer she even took them all on a week's vacation in Florida. She told me that she made the decision when she got old enough to work, that she would never be a welfare mother. I have other stories that I could share on the same subject from studying with women who were welfare mom's but I will limit this post for now. Again, GREAT article!! Terri
Nothing takes the place of personal responsibility... When it's not passed on generationally, humans sink into apathy.
Amen. I grew up in a poor home. I know the apathy and despair that can overwhelm you, if someone does not try to help. My mother had a high school education and was a responsible, determined woman. My father, however, grew up in a poor home, where the father drank and beat the wife and children............he then grew up to try to perpetuate the same on us, his family. I say thanks to my mom and others that I stayed in high school and got a job and slowly clawed my way up thru on the job experience to where I am today. I think, too, that the desire has to be there inside you to better yourself, otherwise you will follow the route of least resistance. My sister and I both have risen above our troubled beginnings and broken the cycle. We are both extremely proud and feel blessed to have done so. Terri
I find it signal that the 'blame the poor' posse have not dealt with ONE fact I provided indicating the culpapbility of the majority of society in the sorrowful state of the poorest.
Aparently some of you guys believe that it is the fault of the poor that the gap between the poorest and the richest has almost doubled in twwnty years. Obviously nothing to do with the government or their policies, all to do with lazy poor people.
This means it must also be their fault they are paid proportionately LESS for the jobs they do than they were 40 years ago.
And the fact that Europe can have;
... far more effectively than the USA seems to sail right over the flat little heads of the "blame the poor" posse. You blame welfare for a problem that has only occurred to the extent it has in America, rather than seeing it is political policy in the USA which has increased the gap between the rich and the poor whilst the rest of the developed world manages to reduce the gap.
Another fact which whistles over the "blame the poor" posse's heads is how can you blame poor people for their education when they can have less than 25% spent on their education in school than people from rich areas.
Are those children REALLY only worth 1/4 the investment that is made in well-off kids? And is it their fault if their education is sabotaged in such a way? I guess I will have to bow to the wisdom of the "blame the poor" posse, as they obviously have figured out that it is right to blame people for being born in the wrong place. This must also explain how infant mortality in Bagladesh is lower than in Harlem...
Likewise 'laziness' can be the only explanation for black income being STATIC as a percentage of white income for over two decades.
It can't be because of American educational funding leading to educational ghettos which doom another generation.
It can't be because black people with the same qualifications as white people are TWICE as likely to be unemployed.
It can't be because whilst paying lip service to equality, there actually isn't that much equality in practice, no matter what the law books say...
No, it is obvious that the "blame the poor" posse can wash their hands and salve their consciences... even if it is ONLY by ignoring facts which make their arguments childish and facile...
