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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!noao!terak!doug
From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: How about helping our own
Message-ID: <238@terak.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Dec-84 13:45:09 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.238
Posted: Thu Dec 27 13:45:09 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Jan-85 04:08:58 EST
References: <709@loral.UUCP> <191@talcott.UUCP> <1887@sun.uucp> <583@uwmacc.UUCP>
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 36

> >I hear comments from American Citizens like 'I do not need a high school
> >education wlefare will take care of me" and see generations and
> >generations of families( the same family) on welfare I begin to wonder
> >about the welfare system. THERE IS NO ENCOURAGEMENT TO GET OFF OF IT.
>
> ... the fact that being on welfare is a nasty, brutal way to
> live.  
> 	You are correct in saying that there is no encouragement to get off of
> welfare, though.

One problem is that the welfare system is amazingly complex, which leads
to the opposite situation from what would be desired.  Those who are
temporarily down on their luck can't figure out how to get the help they
need, and it wouldn't arrive before they get squared away anyhow.  But
inherently lazy folk have the time to scope out the system and learn to
manipulate it to provide maximum benefit to them.

My wife's parents were career welfare recipients.  My father-in-law
only worked two weeks of his life (he died last year at age 72).  Those
two weeks were following the family moving from Minnesota to California.
He needed the time to figure out California's welfare system.  Other
than that, the entire family of five lived a comfortable middle-middle-
class existence on the combination of Social Security, food stamps,
Medicaid, Medicare, state welfare, county welfare, county medical
service (county hospital), and I don't know what all else (but no
private charity groups, to my knowledge).  About every other day a
check arrived in the mail from some government agency or other.  Add
in a good knowledge of how to fool creditors, and how to make
bankruptcy laws work in your favor.

By way of comparison, my mother raised a family of five children on
her GS-2 salary.  Her honest salary provided a lower-middle-class
life -- not going hungry by any means, but not as nice a living as
welfare provided.

Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug