It's hard for a lot of people to give up free shit, even if they don't really need it.

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/tere ... government

In 2016, according to the most recent data from the Census Bureau, there were approximately 73,586,000 people under 18 in the United States, and 38,365,000 of them — or 52.1 percent — resided in households in which one or more persons received benefits from a means-tested government program.

These included the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps), Medicaid, public housing, Supplemental Security Income, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the National School Lunch Program.

I have a ton of personal stories about this.

Even if they want to give it up, they make it difficult, or nearly impossible.

Short-ish story...

I was helping a guy at Harborview who had lost his leg...got him in a program to do medical transcribing at home.

He got good at it, and the company wanted to give him a lot more work, but he said no.

If he made more than a certain amount in a month, they cut off all of his assistance and freebies from the government.

He was disincentivized to earn more.

He could have started a little company, with employees, but instead, they made it easier for him to not work hard, and just get extra spending money on the side.

This issue upsets me.

Couple weeks ago I'm at the grocery store with my hard earned money, and carefully chosen buggy of food. I get no public assistance, I work, and I pay taxes. I have had emergency public assistance for brief periods in my life, but those were total safety nets and nothing permanent. Used responsibly and briefly. I understand a need for an urgent safety net. But not a lifestyle.

I'm in line behind this grotesquely obese woman with at least 2 or 3 teenage kids, both morbidly obese.
Whole family was filthy, tattered clothing, unwashed. Their shopping is mostly junk food. Nothing nutritious. Sodas and tarts and cookies and such. Probably about $75 or so. Uses her food stamp debit card, which I confirmed with the cashier after they left.

I've been meaning to write my officials about it.

Sometimes I just look around and wonder how we got to this point where paying for other people to get fat and eat junk food was remotely a wise idea. This just promotes laziness, breeding, and a cycle of wasted lives and tax burden.

I have never accepted any handouts in my life.
And there were times in my life I didn't make shit.
No unemployment benefits, no food stamps, didn't make the kids mom pay child support when I was the kids sole provider for 12 years.
Never accepted any VA benefits.
I'm a man, and I do what I have to do to support myself and my family.
When I have to, I work harder to make ends meet.

This....well said Sir.

So, no tax credits? No discounts? No buy-one-get-one deals? Will you never accept Social Security benefits?

By the way VA benefits aren't handouts. They're scars serving your nation. I don't think my disabled clients would take kindly to thinking they are getting a handout b/c they lost a limb in an IED strike.
Unemployment isn't a handout. It's a mandatory insurance paid into for short term safety net if you lose your job unexpectedly.
Likewise, GI bill isn't a handout as many belief. It's an earned employee bonus for performance and time in service. Requirements are X months and certain discharge criteria.

I drew unemployment ($400 a month for 6 months max back in 1981) when I was laid off. I had debt up to my azz as a 21 year old and had no family here in WA state to 'move in with' during these financial hard times.

I went through consumer credit counceling, got all my bills paid off by age 24, re-established my credit at age 26 and have never looked back.

I had it engrained in me by my Mom from a very early age never to lean on anyone else to get what you want or need in life. Single Mom of two for the first 10 years of my life, then she adopted my four cousins after my Aunt passed away so the house became increasingly packed, and the food went from what we wanted to what was needed.

Instead of getting on Welfare, WIC or any other assistance what did she do? She worked three jobs, scrimped, saved, and worked for everything we had. I didn't really understand how much and how hard she was working back then, but as I got older I realized she is an amazing woman.

BTW, unemployment is not Welfare.
It's a form of insurance.

Which is why you have the outstanding work ethic that you do. These values, good or bad, get passed down to the next generation. How do we break the the cycle on the negative side and encourage hard work and responsibility again?

Good point.

I got laid off in 94. Wife was in school so I applied for unemployment. Had another job by the time I qualified for a check.

In college, I worked at a large grocery store chain. I saw all kinds of benefits scams. This was back in the 80s and they still had food stamp coupons. guys would come in with a dollar coupon, but a piece of .05 candy and get change back - go across the street to the bar and have another beer. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. On Stamp day, the meat department would stock up. People would come in and load their cart up with steaks. Street value of stamps was .75/1.00 so guys would trade them for cash or goods. Other than that, the usual - buying junk food.

The weirdest deal I ever saw though was a group of women come in. Four of them were black, hot, and dressed to the 9s. One was white and fat - like 300 pounds and not dressed so nice. They got in line and the nicely dressed women each bought small items with cash while the fat woman bought a cart of steaks with stamps. I've always wondered what the back story was on that one.

This was/is encouraged by the democrats for the last, how many years?
I believe it is where it comes from.

And for those that pound their chests about never accepting help, etc. Good for you but grandstanding makes you look like you're above it all.

I have a series of history books that I think I shared a photo of months or years back...
"The Welfare Society" actually got it's legs, so to speak, back in the 20's and 30's when Marxism and it's cousins were blossoming and then going to seed in Europe. Before that post WW1 era, government handouts were rare as hens' teeth.
The Great Depression popped through the shell of self-reliance that people had and opened the floodgates of '.Gov will take care of us.'

I remember seeing/hearing a line from The Waltons when I was in single digits...
"This family doesn't take handouts!" or charity... something like that. I think it was the grandma, or it might have been Olivia.
Anyway, that struck deep and hit heartwood when I was less than 10 years old.
I'd rather go hungry than take financial help free, and I have.

ETA: I do not think it is "pounding our chests" at all. It's talking about our own world view.

Never confuse "grandstanding" with PRIDE.