Snuffy

Danielito
2017-02-18 23:13:45 (UTC)

Welfare

I hate seeing people be so cruel and harsh towards people on welfare and drugs. "If you have enough money for drugs, then you obviously have enough money for food. Get your priorities straight!"
OMG.... Can't they understand that once you're in that cycle, it's nearly impossible to get out?? If you're someone who's been there and has overcome poverty and drug addiction, then kudos. But you'd be an exception. Most people are born into those situations and grow up to emulate what they see, coping the same way their parent(s) coped by using drugs or selling drugs to get by. Most of these folks were born into such a disadvantage, now we wanna take away their welfare too?
I'm referring to the requirement to pass a drug test in order to receive or remain on welfare. If the intent is to withdraw welfare benefits to those who test positive for drugs and that's it, then those people will just end up on the streets, and robbing for survival. It's not likely they're gonna sober up and get a job. We'll have more homeless, and more crime, and probably more people selling drugs to make a living.
We need to rehabilitate these addicts. Sure, it will be expensive, but it will solve the problem. I think society wishes the homeless, the drug addicts, and people in the ghettos would just disappear. People think life is too peachy for them so they have no incentive to change. I'd say that's crazy. I'm not saying there aren't people abusing the welfare system, mooching off the rest of us who pay taxes. But we can't throw everyone into that category.
To someone who says to a beggar, "Get a job!" I say, "Would you hire them?" No. They wouldn't. Nobody will. And Iv'e met so many people on welfare, that aren't holding a cardboard sign who are also "unhirable." They have mental disabilities, developmental problems, crippling anxiety, or they're just plain simple. But they're still people. Their lives have value, just like yours and mine. They have feelings, things they care about, interests, people they love, they hope, they dream, they hunger, they thirst. They're just as human as anyone. It's not that they couldn't work for money, it's that employers wouldn't hire them.
So we need to take care of them and if it means part of our tax dollars go toward keeping them housed and fed, so what? If we need to spend more money on rehabilitating drug addicts and getting them off the streets, and working, we can make up that money in the income taxes those recovering addicts will pay, and there will be less money spent fighting drug crime. Theoretically.
I just wish people would look for solutions with sympathy and empathy in their hearts, remembering that we're dealing with human beings, period. But not useless human beings either. People are capable of much more than they are often given credit for. They just need a fighting chance.




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