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Welfare Queens. Well, not really, I hope.
Just_Bri_Thanks
Seething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
Seething with ragefrom a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
This is one of my co-worker's hot buttons. Her husband was just laid off, and should be on unemployment soon, and she can't stop talking about how people are living large on the public's dime; with more money than any unemployed person should make and free cell phones and etc etc etc blah blah blah.
I just want to shut her up. Really, it is driving me nuts.
What do you all know about the system and abuse of same that I can arm myself with the next time she goes on a diatribe about how people are claiming retardation just to sneak off with $Texas of her tax monies.
My future peace and quiet thanks you, D&D!
I just want to shut her up. Really, it is driving me nuts.
What do you all know about the system and abuse of same that I can arm myself with the next time she goes on a diatribe about how people are claiming retardation just to sneak off with $Texas of her tax monies.
My future peace and quiet thanks you, D&D!
...and when you are done with that; take a folding
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
Just_Bri_Thanks on
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There are certainly those who exploit the system, but like many systems we tolerate some abuse to help those who are actually needy as a whole
What I usually say is that welfare fraud is a crime. If she really believes that she's witnessing welfare fraud, she needs to report it. She'd call 911 if she saw a burglary, right? Same thing. She needs to call whatever agency she thinks is being defrauded.
Letting it happen and then bitching about it does nobody any good.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
The cell phone thing is particularly stupid. Cell phones are pretty critical for finding gainful employment in today's world and a cheap cell phone + cheap plan is certainly affordable on a very very small budget. Would she prefer the unemployed don't have access to the tools they need to find jobs?
Also, what Feral said; if you see a crime, fucking report it; don't just store it up in your whineometer until it all reaches critical mass and everyone simply has to hear about it.
Also, free 'phones are available to anyone that walks into the fucking shop. I know this because I got two of them. And I wasn't even on welfare or anything...
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chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
The phone shop? Where they give you 18 cell phones if you sign a one year contract with them.
A lot of people don't seem to understand that cell phones are no long a luxury.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/cto/1679054353.html
You can get them for a whopping 1600 bucks
I'm on my last week of unemployment (found a job after five months, yay!), and I was getting approximately $200 a week. Exactly how does this woman expect me to live on less than $800 a month? Imagine if I had kids I needed to support!
You can get a free crappy phone, and a plan for as little as what? $30? $40?
Like I could go buy an older Mercedes because parts a cheap, they're easy to maintain, they're very reliable and they're incredibly well built. Like this one
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/1678945875.html
And this stupid woman in the OP would probably screech about a Welfare bum living it large in a Benz while she commutes around in a shitty brand new commuter car.
Generally when people yell and howl about "welfare abuses" they do so without realizing how cheap nonstandard things are. Like the yowls of rage over someone buying rabbit, which costs an extortionate $4-5/lb instead of living on Ramen or some other shitty awful diet that will slowly kill you.
EDIT Damn that car is actually mighty tempting, a 5.6 L V8 on a classic Benz frame for 2k
You can get those flexphones for like $10 at walmart with a 300 minute charge card as well.
That's $1560 before factoring in my car, car insurance, and COBRA. When I got unemployment, I got the maximum payout, which was supposed to be $650 every 10 days, or $1950 a month. It was actually less, because I never got the check on time. It was really more like $650 every 12 or 13 days.
If I hadn't had savings, my only option for living off of unemployment would have been to break the lease on my apartment.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Not only that, but it's difficult to get a job without one.
https://twitter.com/Hooraydiation
I know that for the vast majority of people without kids, welfare is something that doesn't exist (as it stands)
Unemployment had dozens of reasons you might not qualify for it, the same with food stamps
The free cell phone? Seriously fuck her, how the hell do you find work without a phone, they give you 2 hours a month, whoopdeedoo
$388-$400 a week is the maximum unemployment in many states.
edit: welfare queens are always anecdotes, I have personally called out people on some of these by pointing out that they couldn't possibly be getting the benefits that the person said they were. Oddly, you need proof to suggest that most people don't abuse the system but not to suggest otherwise in most public venues
There is no luxury to be found in that, anyone who is leeching off it because they don't want to get a job is slumming it, really.
edit: +1 to the whole 'things aren't as expensive as you think' clause
Yeah, my first cellphone was a flextime phone, cost me about $40 and I never even used up all the minutes on it (they expire after a year, what bullshit!)
FORTY DOLLARS A YEAR LIVIN' LA VIDA LOCA WOOOOOO!
I suspect this same woman who cries about welfare queens doesn't complain about agriculture subsidies. "MY MONEY!" only applies as a complaint if it is spent in a way that gives poor people some kind of tiny comfort.
i) Does she believe that those who become enemployed without having previously had a well paying job allowing for significant saving should die?
ii) If no, who should support them, given that not everyone has a strong network of family behind them?
iii) Given that the obvious answer is the state (maybe the church if she is religious, but when it comes down to it it's the same sort of thing, community support) does she believe they should be given the tools they need to find work, as well as basic food and housing?
iv) Given that they should, please make a budget for them and see how much they should get.
If she does this, she will find the cost, even for someone with no children is likely more than they currently get in benefits from the government.
This isn't a 90s phenomenon. The entire ideological predisposition against welfare goes back to at least the 1800s, and in the United States is in part related to a form of Puritanism. It's stripped itself of its religious connotations over time and has instead become a cultural ideation which persists.
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Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
1) Not on fucking welfare, because around here it tops out at $750 a month
or
2) Committing fucking fraud
I never understand why people bitch about this - if you masses of people could live the good life on welfare without giving up shit, they'd do it. That simple. Living in luxury for doing nothing, legitimately? Sweet, where do we sign up? You know why they don't actually quit their jobs and get on the welfare rolls ASAP? Because you have to be poor as dirt to get it, after which you remain poor as dirt but are now mandated to spend 40 hrs/wk in retraining/remedial job skills/basic ed/other qualifying activities or else have your benefits summarily yanked.
The best I was able to do with a pay as you go phone when I had one was $100 a year. This was mostly due to the way money on the phone expires (it expires after a month, unless you pay $100, in which case it expires after a year). Of course, if you use your phone a lot, you'll have to buy more time, but tha varies by user.
Glancing at qwest, the cheapest they list for getting a landline is just shy of $17. That's about double (~$200) what you'd pay with a pay as you go cell phone.
Edit: And of course, arguing against having a phone at all is exceptionally stupid, if anyone chose to do that.
Currently I am using one of my dad's old cell phones and a prepaid card. Don't think I have spent more the 10$ on phones last month.
Considering I don't have a landline thats cheap.
I have safelink which is what I think the op refers to, they give you a $15 tracphone in the mail and put 120 minutes on it at the beginning of each month for a maximum(?) of one year
Which is good, its ~$30 a month I can use for other things
Alternatively, if you still have computer and internet access, just get Skype and don't live in a frozen wasteland (I hate you Skype) so you can get a Skype-In number and poof, you have quality phone service for nearly nothing.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
Unless people on unemployment are supposed to just sit at home
That's definitely an "if". Internet is usually comparatively pretty expensive, since it implies you either have a landline and dialup or DSL, or something else like cable. I'm assuming a pretty shit situation, and a cell phone is your best option in terms of cost (and accessibility).
Of course, using the Internet is significantly more important than it used to be, but a library can be good for that if you can't even afford it. Unfortunately there aren't libraries everywhere, and not every library has public access computers.
Also, pay phones more or less don't exist anymore.
They do, but they're few and far between.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Sure, I can believe they still exist, but it would take a bit of a struggle to find one.
People who use payphones
- Drug dealers
- Hobos
- Kidnappers
Occasionally my body will remember and get the shudders.
Everyone seems to think that government support is evil and wasteful until it's them that need a hand up.
It's not sustainable unless you find an extreme aesthetic lifestyle enjoyable.
No way man, I totally know this guy who knows a guy who has lived off Welfare for his whole life and he's like, totally got a really nice car and and shit.
Basically what it is, is 'free' houses, furnished with all appliances you need (save for microwave). Then on top of the section 8, most of the welfare folks houses I've been to were getting roughly $800 - $1000 a month.
Now utilities usually run about $300 (gas, water, electricity, etc) which leaves $700 of 'playing around' money each month.
That is a lot of playing around money. And before anyone jumps in with, "But food and cars."
The people I've talked to had their food (not all of the food, but most of it) and cars paid for.
So these people are sitting around getting $700 a month (plus an extra $250 for each kid) and living with their 'baby daddy' so that they don't have to file as married (thus reducing the amount gained). THAT isn't right.
And most of these people tear these houses UP! I mean, I would install a stove and have to come back days later because they were too stupid to push the knob IN and THEN turn it, so they just busted the thermostat, which they then didn't have to pay for, but the landlord did.
Oh and these houses have to be in good shape when they get them, but they can tear them up to their hearts content with no repercussions. That's right, they rip the doors off, punch holes in the wall, break knobs and then move out after 12 months (how long the section 8 contract is good for, per house) and move into another house that has to be pristine, so they can tear that one up too.
So don't fool yourself, living on welfare isn't as crappy as some of you guys are making it out to be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY
Seriously though, I know a woman who keeps having kids to get more benefits. She intentionally misses payments to get more benefits. It happens.
When I worked at Legal Services I helped a bunch of terrible people, people who "couldn't afford" their $40/month Section 8 rent because they had just bought a new car.
When I worked at a convenience store in a poor town women would come in all the time and buy $15 worth of candy bars with EBT, and then buy a ton of lottery tickets and cigarettes. So yeah, there needs to be better policing of the system.