Entitlement feeling

[decemberlov]

I know of more bad cases then good. I believe that in a lot of cases, that MAY (doesn't mean is) mean that those who really need it, don't want the stigma of it. (at least locally) A good portion of the abuse cases that I hear, are from generationers (ones who have learned how to abuse the system from their parents/spouses/neighbors/friends). I believe that is the closest your going to find to an answer to your question.
I know what a basic cell phone goes for, as mine, if I started new, would cost $100 a year. Yet in an area that is known for "welfare kings/queens" (a term I had never heard before an above post), the state pays more then that and they have "smart phones" which are a lot more then a basic phone, that is what was supposed to be provided. I frequently hear about the selling food for drug busts, etc. between a friend who works at the grocery store in the middle of that area, as well as local law enforcement.

The ones we think of as abuse cases, are typically nosier (flagrant).

I'm shocked that the government is paying for phones for people. Let alone smart phones. How does this even make sense?!

When I was pregnant with my daughter I was fired from my job...I was 6 months pregnant (I spent a lot of time getting sick in the bathroom and this was not okay with my boss). 2 weeks later my name came up for a brand new townhouse that goes by your income. They told me they wouldn't be able to give it to me without any income and if I wanted the place I needed to go apply for welfare. I did and I got my place. It was an absolute blessing.

After my daughter was born and was 3 months old I decided I wanted to go back to work. I was only receiving $400.00 a month from the state. I knew that I was capable of making this much in a week. I went to the welfare office, thanked them for the help they had given me and asked to cancel it. I was absolutely taken back by how they treated me. I was made to sign some forms and was told that by me signing those forms and asking to be taken off of welfare that they would never, EVER help me again with any sort of help be it food stamps etc. I was so angry and confused! I honestly can not say what I did sign and if this is even true or if they were just trying to scare me. I never looked back and don't plan on it so I guess (hopefully) I will never know if they were bluffing or not I used them as a stepping stone like they were intended. I was 18 years old with a 3 month old child living on my own. I am grateful for the assistance at the time and don't feel a bit guilty about accepting the help.

I get really upset when I hear about people abusing the system. I know a girl that was receiving food stamps for her and her 5 children and her husband, he at the time was collecting unemployment from a union job..he made $750.00 a week on unemployment and they would buy filet mignon and lobster with the food stamps money they would receive. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how they were even eligible for them in the first place!

[Gregg]

I kind of mentioned it in another post today, but my feeling is that our society is so heavily subsidized that we are all "entitled". Even those who rail against welfare mommas and section 8 deadbeats and whatever other misinterpreted stereotype you care to conjure up. We expect cheap gas and cheap food and cheap power and cheap healthcare and free roads and free schools and on and on. It is extremely difficult to find things in our lives that have not been subsidized by a government program at some point. Yes, we all know nothing's really free, but the way we borrow from the future to pay for today keeps the current cost of everything so (artificially) low that it might as well be. To me that's the REAL entitlement. Economically those subsidies dwarf medicare, ss, unemployment, food stamps, mortgage interest deductions, welfare or any other program we can name. Unfortunately they are a house of cards, too.

[Gregg]

I'm shocked that the government is paying for phones for people. Let alone smart phones. How does this even make sense?

http://obamaphone.net/

Yea, its pretty crazy.

[Zoebird]

I think that once a person gets over the shame of needing welfare, then it becomes an easier way than going to work.

Many of the single parents whom I know here are supported by welfare. The benefits are actually really big. There's a living stipend, the food stipend, and then the stipend for the child's clothing, school supplies, etc. For children under school age, there is also a day-care stipend for 3 days of free care in order for you to work, and 5 days if you get a full time job.

If you are working, how much you earn affects how much you can get on these stipends, so most single parents whom I know work the minimum number of hours.

It does create a comfortable lifestyle. All of them work 1.5 days on average earning about minimum wage, which allows them to get the maximum stipends. While their homes aren't fancy, they can afford to rent an average family-sized home (2-3 bedrooms -- about 1200 sq ft) on the stipend, as well as feed their families (if they shop frugally). Using tip shops and savvy shopping, clothing themselves and their children is also easy (a lot of people here have capsule wardrobes!).

The rest of their time can be spent enjoying the outdoors or the many free cultural events around town. Most of them indulge in quiz night -- which are usually fund raisers for schools and the like anyway, so any money they spend is deductable, and doesn't impact their stipends.

Honestly, while I love my work and never ant to be on welfare (and support welfare services), I can see why the average employee (as opposed to the entrepreneur) would choose this easier lifestyle over working 40-50 hr work weeks to create opportunities for themselves and their children over time (you know, which is what middle class people do).

Here, the stipend allows a family to live in a comfortable, middle class way (so it does defeat many of the aspects of poverty, which I think is great), but without the middle class struggle of working diligently, saving diligently, and being able to support yourself comfortably.

There are a lot of good things about having this welfare system -- similar to the one in denmark -- which is that while there are rich and poor (and 270,000 NZ children currently still go hungry), overall it is socially flattened, so the more extreme problems of poverty are basically unheard of here.

The down side is that people do live comfortably, and so they aren't really "giving back" per se.

That being said, people on welfare pay GST on everything just like everyone else, and when they work (unless self employed and earning under a certain amount), they also pay income taxes on their pay checks. So, in that way, they are still 'supporting the system' from which they take.

So while they might not be "giving back" in terms of GNP and the like, they are still putting into the system that they are using. So I think that's good.

[Zoebird]

Also, according to a lot of documentation, fraud of the system in the US is under 4% (or was it .4%) anyway -- there are government statistics about it out there somewhere.

[decemberlov]

http://obamaphone.net/

Yea, its pretty crazy.

DH showed me this video the other day I honestly thought it was a joke until now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio

[Gardenarian]

The phone situation is much more complex than this. Please read this article on Snopes which clarifies the issue: Phone Home

[iris lily]

The phone situation is much more complex than this. Please read this article on Snopes which clarifies the issue: Phone Home

I did read it. The number people with LifeLine (i.e. gooberment program phones ) increased from 7 million to 12 million during the tenure of Barack Obama.

That the subsidy doesn't come from the tax base but instead is a goobermnet mandated tax on communication services, well--if you think that is better, OK!

[JaneV2.0]

Considering that public pay phones are disappearing in favor of cells (during the tenure of Barack Obama), I can see where this program makes sense. Something like my ten dollar pay as you go phone should be sufficient.

[ApatheticNoMore]

That the subsidy doesn't come from the tax base but instead is a goobermnet mandated tax on communication services, well--if you think that is better, OK!

The companies aren't paying. It's one of the lines of taxes on every phone bill, it's only on there every month.