I guess it's official, unless...

[tiqueman]

I don't believe anyone's calling a laid off worker a "mooch". A large part of the mooching public are life long moochers! And most of them second and third generation moochers. My aunt worked at the Massachusetts "welfare" office for 20 or so years. You should hear the stories. Sure there are real people with real heath problems that force them to not be able to work, but a larger portion are just lazy or unfortunately not educated enough to do much.

Well said

i wasnt directing that to anyone here my sister in law collected for a 1.5 years and within a week of being cut off she found a job , my neibor got laid off and they get 25 a month in food stamps, my wife make 200 to much a month to qualify for food stamps yet our mortgage is 2 mths behind and the neibor down the road that works off the books and has 5 kids get welfare, food stamps wic and lives in a house twice the size of ours but yet he shows no income so my statement was its way to easy for people with a knowledge of the system to munipulate the system while the guy who never took a handout in his life needs help and has no where to turn

Amen brother. And not only that, it peeves me that going from what I made, which believe me, wasnt close to 6 figures but was good pay, and someone aking 11 dollars and hour that gets laid off, and we collect teh same benefits. Like your situation, my wife makes too much fo us to qualify for anything. Yet we are short about 1500. a month on our bills. Well, like many have done, the savings account is onyl a couple months from being drained. Then what???

btw i start a job next week ive been wanting for 2 years(stablity) but its been a hard 3 months(last time i worked) and a tough year as buildind is suffering in the uper end market

Conratulations. Thats certainly great news. Best of luck w/ the employment. Send some my way!

[ron1950]

not knowing much about all this....i thought a commonwealth like mass would take care of there welfare beter then others...guess they are all the same......louisana took my money for unemployment and when they layed me off they said i make too much in retirement from the feds to get unemployment lol...just glad i can make ends meet...barely but makeing it....man i feel for you guys that are still young and need to work....it isnt getting any better out there......still waiting on the change they promaced last election...so far its just makeing me pay more for less.....

[Steven Vaccaro]

They take care of you Ron, as long as you are a single mom. Which covers more than 50% of the house holds in the cites. So the scam is to never get married. Just live together. Then you get, most of the money for your rent, food allowance AND the big one HEALTH care.

[GP73]

Interesting thread...

[ron1950]

anyone want to get me pregnet? lol talk about a ugly thought!!!!

[tharmer]

The world is full of simple, easy to understand, wrong, solutions.

[domwilson]

Things aren't always as they appear...
For instance, welfare isn't free. Not for the taxpayer or the recipient. The recipient's in many cases are expected to pay the money back or the father's of te children will have to foot the bill. Welfare is the least of the problems this country has. IMHO Apathy, lack of social interaction, ethics, and greed are the social issues the leading to our economic downturn. Everyone has to be right, no matter how wrong they are. We spend more time arguing rather than finding solutions. Economics are just one aspect of what made this country strong. But I think what really makes us strong is the ability to overcome our differences and find solutions to the problems that affect us. Unfortunately, slowly and with little fanfare, our government is taking those abilities away from us and rendering us to be little more than automatons.

Look at this bill...

[Steven Vaccaro]

Things aren't always as they appear...
For instance, welfare isn't free. Not for the taxpayer or the recipient. The recipient's in many cases are expected to pay the money back or the father's of te children will have to foot the bill. Welfare is the least of the problems this country has. IMHO Apathy, lack of social interaction, ethics, and greed are the social issues the leading to our economic downturn. Everyone has to be right, no matter how wrong they are. We spend more time arguing rather than finding solutions. Economics are just one aspect of what made this country strong. But I think what really makes us strong is the ability to overcome our differences and find solutions to the problems that affect us. Unfortunately, slowly and with little fanfare, our government is taking those abilities away from us and rendering us to be little more than automatons.

Look at this bill...

Do I agree with some of what you are saying. But

"IMHO Apathy, lack of social interaction, ethics, and greed are the social issues the leading to our economic downturn"

Part of that above statement is caused by the lack of a working parent. A single mother can not show a child that hard work pays off.

"Not for the taxpayer or the recipient. The recipient's in many cases are expected to pay the money back or the father's of te children will have to foot the bill. "

Try finding the fathers. The only time this is done is when the father is in the middle to upper end of the wages catagory. Otherwise it doesnt make sense for the social investigators to speed the time/money to find them. Like I said, my aunt was one of these social workers. Two of the three fraud investigators in her office are good customers of mine. I wish I had the time to put their stories on paper. The system is a mess.

[hyrulejedi86]

I've tried to avoid this for a little while at least as politics just make me angry but I am agreeing with alot of what I am reading here. Especially, the "moochers" comments, I notice it all the time, in my profession even.

[domwilson]

Part of that above statement is caused by the lack of a working parent. A single mother can not show a child that hard work pays off.



Try finding the fathers. The only time this is done is when the father is in the middle to upper end of the wages catagory. Otherwise it doesnt make sense for the social investigators to speed the time/money to find them. Like I said, my aunt was one of these social workers. Two of the three fraud investigators in her office are good customers of mine. I wish I had the time to put their stories on paper. The system is a mess.

You are correct. There are some who are just "riding" the system. I don't believe that it is not even a majority. But it's enough to make people believe that most are doing it. In addition, many of those who are employed to police the system are not even doing their jobs or their managers are preventing them from doing it. I've seen cases where the social worker will visit a recipient and the father is living right there with them. But nothing happens. What ever happened to "WorkFare" where you had to do community work to get a check?...

Wouldn't it be nice if we had some of the same values as we did in the 60's or 70's where people were more considerate and helpful to each other? Where you pulled not only your own weight but a little extra to help out a friend or neighbor?
And often they would return the favor.

[Rumdog]

Workfare... that would be nice. I wish they would make jury duty the "duty" of the people collecting unemployment benefits. Why should I be forced to take time off work that I cannot afford to serve on a jury when there are thousands of people needing something to do with their free time?

Sorry for the slightly off topic rant

[domwilson]

I sympathize with those who have been out of work, thru no fault of their own, for extended periods of time. I would never imply that they are lazy. The majority of people out there want to work buy are unsuccessful in finding gainful employment. I was one of them. It is tough. I guess some of us forget, we can become one of them at any time and sometimes without warning. Don't blame those in need for the mis-steps of those in greed.

[Flying Scotsman]

Interesting, there are people who have been devisated by a loss of job or plant closure and there are some that abuse the system.

Douggie

[crrcboatz]

DEBT

That is what has caused the american dollar to be worth so little. The US govt and far too many americans live by debt. Americans default on everything under the sun. American government borrows 44 cents of every dollar it spends. We have become a debtor nation. The country is fast facing a time when it to could default on its debt also.

I am retired and have a high school classmate who between his wife and himself made over 250 grand/yr and did that for 12 yrs. Wife died of cancer, my friend took off to help her in her final months. After her death he has now been without steady work for 8+ yrs. During all that time of top shelf income they never saved a dime. He had 15 grand in the checking account and a small insurance policy to bury her with. We are both 64 and he will work till he dies. Lost his house and lives in an apt now
This is what he said to me about 10yrs ago, "Curt no one saves money today". I told him I DID. Bet he regrets spending lets see 2million + over those years and never saving any of it now.
Our govt and each of us must learn to live within our means. When the american dollar ceases to be the world standard and that is but a few yrs away, Americans will face a huge wake up but it will be too late then. Our standard of living will have gone and we will live like the rest of the world fighting high inflation, and not being able to efford nearly what we want.

Curt

[keithbradley]

They take care of you Ron, as long as you are a single mom. Which covers more than 50% of the house holds in the cites. So the scam is to never get married. Just live together. Then you get, most of the money for your rent, food allowance AND the big one HEALTH care.

Alot of our country's problems have to do with this. Not just limited to economics. Women need to know what they need, and what they can provide. Men need to know the same. Society has blurred the lines and everyone is being told they are "equal"...man, woman, child, ect. Its just not true. We are not equal and we need each other, and our kids need both of us. Women are better at some things than men, and men are better at some things than women. I've recently had this talk with my son. Our children are growing up in a world where they are treated like they have no strengths or weaknesses. Everyone is equal, and everyone gets the same blue ribbon just for participating.

I had to put my son in a different baseball league because the one he was in was a joke. No score kept, no balls/strikes...no outs. Every kid swings till he hits and every inning they go through the entire batting order. I guess they do this so no one feels inferior, but guess what: People are inferior. We all have weaknesses and strengths and the real world will teach you that fast. Why are we telling our kids this lie? We not only prepare our kids to live in a reality that doesnt exist, but we steal the feelings of accomplishment a child gets when they accomplish something.
The new league he is in is regular baseball. If youre out, youre out. If you cant hit the ball, sorry. If you are a good athelete and you work hard, it shows.

...I know Im going off on a tangent here, but heres the moral of the baseball story:

The league my son plays for now looks so different. Not just the rules, but the level of skill is not even comparable. Its like he went from playing with 8 year olds to playing with 16 year olds. I seriously think they could play 2-3 years up in the other league and just completely embarass the other kids.
They are not drawing from a different gene pool or anything, just allowing the kids to acheive things honestly, instead of just giving everyone the same reward regardless of their performance. Its amazing what kids can do when you stop treating them like they are infants.

I feel the same way about government assistance, and the single mother comment Steve made. Im not looking to bash anyone, but as much as I hear the cliche about single mothers having it so hard...
Well, I'll put it this way: Being responsible and commiting to one person for the rest of your life, honoring that commitment, staying around when its difficult instead of just looking for someone else to comfort you, being vulnerable to someone else, making an effort towards something more than just yourself instead of living life as a victum...those are all things that a married woman does, and I find them much more respectable traits than "struggling on your own". Most people who are "on their own" are on their own because they choose to be. If you choose to be on your own, you should be. You should not be living off the dollar of those who devote their life to achieving something.