Do you all hate...

[zibazinski]

It did IF the poster accepted responsibity and asked for advice as to what else could be done. The ones that came on and whined about the sad state they found themselves in through NO FAULT of their own were just asking for it.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

This didn't happen on the old boards very often.

It did when the poster didn't tell the board why they couldn't do anything suggested. The OP is doing everything that anyone here would suggest.

Take CM as a prime example. She NEEDED 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms. She NEEDED a big truck.....

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

<<< Been there- I really hope you are joking. Living on welfare sucks. There's is NOTHING great about it. NOTHING. I feel dirty and worthless every single day. And I hate it. It's no way at all to raise kids. I pray that no one ever has to live this way who hasn't had to. I am thankful for it but it's not a life style I want to live much longer. >>>

...oh, I hear you... my post was more a sigh than a goal... we have not quit to apply for assistance... we stay in the workforce despite the fact that we can't make ends meet to get a cell phone, or get the stuff foodstamps would get us, afford the rent that Section 8 housing costs, etc. etc.... but it sucks to watch our friends get all this on welfare... call it sour grapes, I guess...
...but we choose to keep plugging away... one day the last payment gets made, and then we get to make that same payment to an EF, and then to night school, and then...


...and mollymouser is right to invite you over to the SmartSpending board... lost of great stuff over there to squeeze money from the budget... I lurk there quite often...


ETA: and deminmaine is also right to invite you to the Politics board if you really want to get yelled at... it's very much a Jerry Springer show over there...

[sheilaincali]

seriously- what happened to all the people from the original YM Board? For years I only posted on WIR because I was a afraid of you all. Now you move to a new board and you are all warm and fuzzy? Don't get me wrong- I like it

[tea4me]

I don't hate welfare. I hate lazy people that could be working but instead collect welfare.

[readsalot]

My DH said his friend was talking to his brother (the friends brother) who has NINE young kids and is collecting unemployment. He IS looking for a job though. The brother collecting unemployment was going on and on about hating Obama and he Loves the Tea Party and we are going to turn into a socialist country,etc. Come to find out they are receiving help from the state with food and medical etc. because they have NINE kids. One with a medical condition. His brother told him if he felt that way to go downtown and cancel all the help they are getting. His brother didn't 'get' it. Ummm, he was bashing exactly what he was using?

[Deleted]

Seriously, i don't think we were ever 'kick a man when he's down' kind of people... like zib said, the op is already following what advice we would have given... and expresses gratitude for the assistance, and a desire to make it short term... what do you expect anyone to say? really? ...

"it sucks to watch our friends get all this on welfare..."

See... i wouldn't want to live where/how most of the people i know on foodstamps/ assistance live... it really doesn't look all that great to me.

[zibazinski]

When they live, shop, eat better than you do, it doesn't suck at all but makes you feel like a fool for working.

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

<<< See... i wouldn't want to live where/how most of the people i know on foodstamps/ assistance live... it really doesn't look all that great to me. >>>

...okay... but for us, it would be an INCREASE... so, perspective is everything, huh?

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

<<< When they live, shop, eat better than you do, it doesn't suck at all but makes you feel like a fool for working. >>>

...right...

[Deleted]

"Ummm, he was bashing exactly what he was using?"

I find this. A LOT. Last week i also had to sit through people who get food stamps and EITC, etc. discussing 'those welfare people'... the same conversation we have here sometimes about pulling up in a Mercedes and nice purses... and i'm like... yeah, but i actually don't KNOW anyone like that, and they swear they do?... sigh... Its why i don't think conservative movements have a chance in heck of actually working... i really don't think most of the 'regular' people in them actually realize what it is they are advocating for... and i don't think most of them would actually allow a conservative movement to do what it wants to do, in terms of cutting benefits and social programs... they'd be up in arms if they actually got what it is they profess to want (you know, outside of illegal abortion and bans on gay marriage...)...

Please don't make me go to P&M... its impossible to discuss this stuff intelligently over there...

[Deleted]

ok... i have no idea where that row of faces came from at the bottom of my last post?

[Deleted]

I don't know anyone on assistance programs who does live/eat/shop better than us though... You would have to make very little for it to be less than assistance, and the fact is that if you made that little, you would still qualify for programs like WIC and get and EITC.
One family I know does live in a nice enough house, but that's because they had a fire and insurance paid for the new house/ and they got a lot of help, but its in a VERY rural area so that land was cheap. One lives in a small half house in a run down part of town, one in a single wide trailer... its not like they are living in plush conditions... etc.

[jkapp]

I agree with Dancinmama...I am not against safety nets, I am against safety cradles. For instance, unemployment was set up for 6 months of payments - not two years. Now the interest payments are due from states to pay the feds for borrowing money to extend unemployment and that is hurting the states' finances even more. That kind of welfare does more damage than good.

I am against EIC because it is just money for nothing...there are no stipulations on what you can spend it on. One of my former co-workers used it for a nice resort vacation for herself and then would most likely be complaining about how she can't afford clothes, food, etc for her kids later on. The same year the local paper brought her and her kids gifts for Christmas she used her EIC for a vacation to the resort...so when you deal with people that have no shame, you have to set limits on the welfare - you can't just hand it out and expect them to all of a sudden become responsible.

[sheilaincali]

I respect people that get gov't assistance for a short period of time and work to improve their situation. I think that the backpack programs at school that send kids home with food to get them through the weekends are great.

What I don't respect is people that continue to have kids they can't afford while on assistance. People that go out of their way to defraud the system. People that buy name brand crap with their food stamps- generic, store brand is fine thank you very much.

I also have issues with Habitat for Humanity. I think at it's core it's a good organization but over the years our local one has drifted. We have a lot of people that immigrated to MN and within months of getting here become "Christian" and change their names to John and Betty. They apply for a habitat house and one is built for them. Of the last 10 homes built in my community only 2 were built for people that had been residents on MN for years. In know of another family that lied about their kids' ages because the number of bedrooms is based on number of kids. They claimed their kid was 17 when I know damn well he was the same age as my sister and 23 at the time.

But if someone is willing to work to change their situation and they need a helping hand for a while I have no problem with that. I have respect for people that ignore their pride and apply for assistance when it's in the best interest of their kids.

[Deleted]

Doesn't Habitat require you to spend so many hours building other peoples houses before you get your own?

jkapp... and i don't think the fact that most don't realize its not 'their money', helps the issue...

[zibazinski]

Our Habitat screens carefully and they have to put in several hours of their own time to get a house. There are more applicants than houses and even people to work on them. It isn't a walk in the park and the houses aren't that great and are generally in not so great areas due to a donated lot or a house that has been condemned, then flattened, for a rebuild. If it went to being abandoned, you can imagine the area it was in. You aren't talking granite countertops and stainless steel appliances here. 2 kids per bedroom is the standard so most houses are 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. These recipients are not just put in the new home and let run wild. They make payments and are carefully monitored. They can recieve no other form of public assistance other than SSDI.

[sue]

"I am against EIC because it is just money for nothing...there are no stipulations on what you can spend it on."

Read more: notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=finance&action=display&thread=1874&page=2#ixzz1BUnt0AdF

At least you have to be working to get it.

[Gardening Grandma]

I've been on food stamps and received welfare. It's been many years. I had divorced an abusive husband and was raising two kids with no child support (they didn't enforce it then as well as they do now). It was humiliating but I swallowed my pride because the food stamps enabled me to give my kids healthier meals than pancakes and mac & cheese. I was working, btw, at a full time job that paid min wage.

I know the system has its abusers, but I'm the last person who is going to judge. I'd much rather be in the position of paying taxes than receiving welfare.

[zibazinski]

My community, too.

[Deleted]

A family of 4 can make 40K and still get WIC and EITC... so i don't see many 'working poor' who are making over 40K ?... I do live in a rural area, and around here, you can live quite nicely on 40K... so that may make a difference? Although according to the last fed income tax stats available, less than 50% of had an AGI of 33K+... so?

[Deleted]

Yeah, there is something wrong with the system.


NO... the system is meant to protect THE CHILDREN... and provide for them... that is the reason these programs exist, to protect/provide for the innocents

[sheilaincali]

At our habitat they do have to put in some many hours to "sweat equity". However, one family had their teenage kids out there working all one summer and the parents didn't work any time. With the bedrooms- boys and girls can't share rooms and if there is more than a set number of years between the kids they can't share a room either.

I am not just speaking out my backside- my dad sits on the Board of Directors for the local HFH chapter. Some of the debates they have can get pretty wild.

[Deleted]

Fine... feel free to take the assistance then... i bet you'll find out its not as grand as you think it is... personally, i'd rather not give up choice and freedom to tie myself to that level of assistance... or limit myself to a broken down car, dish tv and some cigarettes as a 'quality life'...

[Deleted]

And i'm saying the grass is always greener...

[zibazinski]

Where do you see them driving beat up cars?

[Deleted]

All around me... the people i know who get assistance are driving beaters, that are constantly breaking down... and these are people where one person works... i know of no one off the top of my head who gets assistance where neither person works...

Assistance does not pay all that is necessary to raise a child. I don't know anyone who had a child to get assistance... although i know some that keep having children even while on it (which i don't agree with)... but its not like its to get more money... kids cost more than assistance will give you... although it may give you longevity in that you keep getting the minimal benefits...

[zibazinski]

Need to STOP handing out stuff for the "innocent" kids. These kids are used as pawns by their "parents." No money for them, they'll stop having/using them.

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

...at the risk of sounding snarky, oped, you said that you have trouble having intelligent discussion over on the Politics board, but you keep denying posters here simply because you've personally not seen something for yourself... it's difficult, indeed, to discuss anything with someone who is unwilling to concede that they have a limited point of view...

[Deleted]

Yeah... beacause before these programs there were no starving children... right... its a new phenomenon that just developed as a RESULT of social programs... we started social programs for no reason at all...

I do think sometimes children can be used as pawns.. i think the parents who do this tend to misuse SSI more than anything, getting their children diagnoses and more permanent checks... and as i said, i think that is a program that shold be overhauled, changed, fraud checked first...

But the fact remains, either we start to talk about limiting freedoms, or we accept that, if we want to keep our own freedoms, we have to accept some drag on the system from people who misuse theirs... its not as easy as people like to make it seem...