Kinja reply list

Read More
MadameCouscousalwaysHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 12:03pm
Why do we shame people for food stamps? Seriously I would rather see people fed by my taxes than going hungry or begging in the streets. Do we really want to turn ourselves back into a country that children are begging for handouts?
Reply
- Read More
  RogueMandaMadameCouscousalways
  5/29/15 12:10pm
  Agreed. If I have to pick between giving my tax dollars for a raise for some congressman— whose position was only ever intended to be a part-time gig in addition to a regular, full-time career— and to feed someone in poverty, I’ll pick the latter every time.
  Reply
- Read More
  PfffffbbbbytttttdjshdgMadameCouscousalways
  5/29/15 12:11pm
  Seriously! My Dziadzia’s father died when he was young, and his mother had to raise five children on her own working as a seamstress for a bridal shop. She didn’t make much money, and my Dziadzia had to stand in bread lines so the family could eat. Do we really want to go back there? Or become like North Korea where children are dying in the streets of starvation, and their parents abandoned them because they couldn’t afford another mouth to feed? People who shame food stamp recipients and try to cut their benefits are just fucky.
  Reply
Read More
Parmer WallaceHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 12:55pm
This is the most important conversation we can have in America right now, because people who vote to slash government assistance are disconnected to the reality of this decision.

When you pay taxes, how much of your individual money do you think you are losing so that children can eat? Your quality life is not diminished one bit by the portion of money that goes to house and feed impoverished family. HOUSING AND FOOD.

If you want to complain that you are losing money so that the U.S. government can support foreign dictators, drone killings, and new weapons, go ahead. There is an argument to be made there.

Look at the pie of American spending, and re-think if you really want to complain about the amount of money you are required to give the poorest people in this country. If that still bothers you, then you are a selfish motherfucker, but all is not lost, because we can still connect this back to your own well-being! The safety of your city, your neighborhood, and your child’s school is absolutely connected to the well-being of the people living in poverty. The medical costs connected to your premiums, co-pays, hospital stays, and prescriptions is absolutely affected by the costs associated with the burden created by the uninsured.

The fight to make life harder for American families living in poverty is one of the most disgusting in American politics. Considering the spending in this country, the individual wealth in this country, the corporate wealth in this country, your beef is will FOOD STAMPS????
Reply
- Read More
  burnermedownParmer Wallace
  5/29/15 1:21pm
  “Your quality life is not diminished one bit by the portion of money that goes to house and feed impoverished family.”
  
  Of course it is, us working folk pay a shitload of taxes. Instead of the money I earn going to me, it goes to someone else.
  Reply
- Read More
  Parmer Wallaceburnermedown
  5/29/15 1:50pm
  I didn’t say your quality of life isn’t diminished by taxes, I said it isn’t diminished by the relatively small portion that actually goes to help feed the poor. Only a little bit of the money that is taken out of your taxes actually goes to entitlements, but almost all of the outage is focused on this small bit.
  
  This is true no matter how much your make. Your well-being is not affected by the portion of money that absolutely affects the well-being of others. Please, by all means, try to explain how I am wrong. I am talking about the actual amount that goes to the poor, not the 51% that goes to military spending. What would your prefer? Are you cool with throwing the poor on the streets, and leaving the kids to starve, so that you can have that $11.56 back on each of your paychecks, without saying a fucking word about the portion of your paycheck that goes to Yemen. There is no logic you can use that will win this argument.
  Reply
Read More
SpringSprungHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 11:57am
But goddamn it, part of living in a society is helping those who can’t help themselves.

This sentiment has started so many fights when the nutjob relatives are in for the holidays. I hope these and other mothers (and fathers) have the strength to keep enduring until better times.
Reply
- Read More
  AssFault on the Highway to HellSpringSprung
  5/29/15 12:13pm
  Well, that’s because everyone thinks they somehow have it worse!
  
  “Hell, how am I going to afford my $1k/month boat payments if I have to help these lazy assholes?
  Reply
- Read More
  weirwoodtreehugger3SpringSprung
  5/29/15 12:53pm
  It’s usually the devout Christians doing that too. At least IME.
  Reply
Read More
kumfinemyyburnerHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 12:05pm
I’m reading some of the comments on the debit card payroll cards on Gothamist and I can’t believe some of the lack of empathy some people have. I call it the “Why Can’t They...Disease”

Why can’t they just get an online bank account? Why can’t they get a low fee or no fee Checking account? (yeah, a checking account for a homeless guy) Unfuckingbelieveable.

All it takes is one legal fuckup and you’re fucked. Fucked.
Reply
- Read More
  Creative Destructionkumfinemyyburner
  5/29/15 12:23pm
  It’s because we’re a society that doesn’t want to be a society. Rather, we’re a society of people who think of themselves as individuals, separate from everything else and all the social structures and ills that come with it. There’s no sense of community that doesn’t begin and end with simply being an “American,” with no explanation for what that actually entails.
  
  We’re a sick society, and if we don’t do anything about it, it’s going to be the ruin of us. Insular, decadent people who have contempt for people below them. It’s why we need a classless society and one where our work is all socially valued, instead of individually valued.
  Reply
- Read More
  flamingolingokumfinemyyburner
  5/29/15 12:38pm
  Krugman just wrote an op-ed about precisely this problem. Far too many Americans are one mishap away from financial disaster. And that number is only growing.
  Reply
Read More
PrimoLeviSuperfanHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 12:39pm
Dear Hamilton Nolan,

Hello. My name is Eliot, and I am a 23-year-old college sophomore. I study chemistry at a large SEC university in my hometown, and I am on welfare.

My mother and I are both disabled, though in different ways. She has lupus, the kind where the sufferer has to crawl around the house on all fours some days, cannot sit upright for 30 minutes, has skin that erupts in sores if they’re exposed to sunlight, must sometimes go to the hospital for fluids and cortisone shots because of crippling gut inflammation, and slowly loses their short-term memory and bladder control because of inflammation of neural tissue. She qualified for SSDI and medicare on the second appeal.

I have an autism spectrum disorder which makes it impossible for me to do so-called unskilled labor. I can work a digital cash register, but I cannot work a digital cash register, look someone in the eye, listen to and understand their order, and calculate change in my head at the same time, especially if the room is loud. The SSI people understood this immediately, but explaining it to others has been a struggle; the assumption seems to be that autism and misanthropy are the same thing and that I need to get over myself (“Nobody likes working in retail or fast food!”) I have little motivation to throw myself upon the mercy of the service industry over and over until I find some weird little thing I can do, as I would somehow have to work five full-time jobs (200 hrs/w, a mathematical impossibility) to support my mother and myself without taking any kind of assistance. I considered striking out on my own and getting a physical job at a lodge or on a farm, but then I discovered via library books and free online courses that I can solve chemistry problems. I can see the molecules in my head. With encouragement I took the ACT (I got a 36) and applied to the SEC university in my hometown. Thankfully, someone somewhere in the government decided to take the infamous platitude “poor people want a hand up, not a handout” to heart, and as such I have received a great deal of financial aid.

Based on my performance in the lab as a freshman, my faculty advisor has predicted that I will no longer be disabled – in fact, I will be a “skilled” worker - by the time I graduate. This is why I believe the terms “skilled” and “unskilled” to be meaningless in respect to labor – I could get advanced degrees and end up on a research team at Stanford and still lack the skills that would allow me to work as a cashier.

But I digress. In order to stay in school and take care of my mother I have to continue taking assistance. We have done so since she and my father divorced in the middle of the Great Recession. After the divorce we lived in a little shack with inadequate heat and plumbing on a family friend’s property. We had to borrow thousands of dollars because the rent was $300 a month and we were running up huge electricity and kerosene bills using space heaters. Eventually a tree fell on this shack, leaving us homeless. We had to apply for public housing and we were on a waiting list for two years.

I remember how one public housing interview went badly because I kept making social errors, and afterward my mother was driving me back to a friend’s house screaming “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?? WE ARE HOMELESS!” and I started crying and howling in terror for our future to the point where my mother threatened to leave me on the side of the road if I didn’t stop. I remember being at a food bank for five hours, trying to get my mother through it because she was of course in pain, and finally receiving rotten meat and produce that poisoned me. I remember being chased out of a grocery store by a man who had been in line behind me; he’d seen me using food stamps and it made him angry, so he menaced me in the parking lot to the point where I felt unsafe as a female. There were disparaging remarks from pharmacists, nurses, a social security office clerk who reduced my mother to tears, and one family court judge who memorably told us that God would lift us out of poverty if we prayed more often, but what hurt the most were comments from our friends in the middle class. The woman who told my mother that she didn’t want to live in a country where she (my mother) qualified for SSDI. The high school acquaintance who told me that I was stealing from her family via taxes and that she never wanted to see me again. The young “queer radical anarcho-communist,” son of a friend of the family, who sent me an extraordinary Facebook message (actual quotes: “SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!” “You are a collaborator in the corporate oppression of people of color in the United States and abroad. You are a war criminal.” ”I would recommend that you try repurposing food from dumpsters…millions of children in developing countries would be thrilled to eat out of an American dumpster”) after he learned that I’d bough food and tampons at Wal-Mart.

That was not fun to write.

Public housing has been the best thing for us, really. I have access to public transportation, which gets me to campus and cuts car-related expenses to almost nothing (cars are perhaps the #2 reason it’s so expensive to be poor, behind healthcare.) Income-adjusted rent allowed us to drop food stamps and pay for food with my mother’s SSDI, putting a stop to the insane judgmental reactions people were having to us. Additionally, when I tell classmates where I live, they assume I’m talking about the trendy semi-gentrified neighborhood next to the public housing development and they think I’m cool.

Things are looking up.

Thank you for your time.
Reply
- Read More
  Alice has a vagenda of manocide.PrimoLeviSuperfan
  5/29/15 1:52pm
  Best of luck to you in the future!
  Reply
- Read More
  filmgirlPrimoLeviSuperfan
  5/29/15 3:54pm
  You are amazing at how brave and positive you are, your story makes me cry. I wish the best for you and I know you will achieve everything you deserve!!
  Reply
Read More
Armando stillettoHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 11:51am
A note to Cat

“He did stop the fight....when the surgery he -NEEDS- to return to work couldn’t happen for a few months (because surgeons are always backlogged), he lost his job..”

Cat, if the injury ocurred in the course of his work, he is entitled to Worker’s compensation which would not only provide temp disability pay, but medical expenses and a permanency award once therapy is complete. You should contact a local WC attorney. If it did NOT occur during work, he may still qualify for State disability if the injury is preventing him from working.
Reply
- Read More
  Pie o myArmando stilletto
  5/29/15 12:10pm
  This is terrible but i’ve seen people fighting disability for 10-12 months and give up. It’s not right but it’s just so. We have a guy who had a heart attack and stroke while struck with pneumonia, was in a coma for 21 days and has a physically demanding job. He got denied disability and then coerced his doctor into writing a return to work note because he has bills to pay. He can’t work. He can hardly talk or walk 25 yards without stopping to rest. What the politicians have done in this country is dispicable.
  Reply
- Read More
  OhioGrownArmando stilletto
  5/29/15 12:10pm
  It depends on the state. I’m not familiar with NY laws, but in some states WC doesn’t cover almost anything. It had been slowly whittled away at the state level by corporate lobbying.
  
  http://gawker.com/how-much-are-y…
  Reply
Read More
EvilSuperMonkeyHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 11:55am
When politicians want to cut social programs I feel like they should have to spend a week with people like this. I’m totally fine with some of my tax dollars going to help people that didn’t get as lucky as me.
Reply
Read More
stpauligrlHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 12:01pm
I’m so glad you’re doing this series. I wrote in a couple of years ago when you did a similar series re: unemployment and I’m a single mom so I hit on a lot of what these women are writing. The stigma of a) being a single mom and b) accepting any help from the government is just crushing. I’m an attorney who was laid off in 2010 and I went 366 days supporting me and my 3 kids (and dog) on the relative-small amount of money I would get contracting whenever the gigs arose, plus the tiny bit of unemployment for those weeks when I didn’t have a contract job. We weren’t “on the dole” at that time, but I did have my kids enrolled on my state’s health insurance program for the uninsured (there wasn’t one for adults so I was without a net for a year). The way I was treated at my pediatrician’s office, where we have been going for 11 years, was appalling. If I didn’t like the doctor so much I would have walked out the first day I was belittled and shamed by the office staff for presenting the state insurance card. During that time I also couldn’t hire a babysitter for when my kids had a day off or got home from school because I never knew when I was going to get called for a job and even then, I wouldn’t have been able to pay him/her, anyway. So when I would get a job, I would give my then-11 yr old a flip phone so he could text me when he, his brother (then-9 and sister, then-6) got home from school to let me know they were o.k. Whenever anyone would find that out, I was shamed not only for a) never having money, and b) placing my kids on the state’s Medicaid program, but also for being an “irresponsible parent” for putting an 11 yr old in charge of 2 younger siblings. Suddenly, the fact that I was a lawyer and sole-supporting parent went out the window and I was immediately placed in the judgey categories of tragic and/or incompetent and/or helpless. I almost think everyone in the US should have to accept assistance for a time just to know what it’s like on the other side. Perhaps the world would be a kinder place.
Reply
- Read More
  EvilSuperMonkeystpauligrl
  5/29/15 12:20pm
  Yeah way to be a shitty person and do the best you could for your family and contributing to society. What a terrible example for your children. Fuck the people that look down on you and I hope things will keep improving for you.
  Reply
- Read More
  freetibetwithapurchaseofanentreestpauligrl
  5/29/15 12:24pm
  You are amazing. If I could give you a tiara and crown you outstanding mom I would. When one has little to no income and bills piling up, details and planning are so hard to focus on (because panic) and you did it and it all came out okay. AND you kept your dog, pets are usually the first to go. You have been through the wars, maybe instead of a tiara, it should be a medal.
  Reply
Read More
Samuel M.Hamilton Nolan
5/29/15 11:55am
I wish someone would explain to me what is so hard about getting a good job. I only have a high school diploma, and yet I find decent employment. I had a 70k a year factory job until I got laid off a few years ago. I went to a temp service working for $10hr just to help out with the bills until I found a better job. A few months later I landed a 60k job. Obviously not as good but still far better than temping. I’m not trying to brag or sound better than anybody out there. Anyone with a head on there shoulders can earn these jobs. Most of the people that I see come and go from the factory I’m in now which only has 30 or so hourly people are let go because of attitude. When you are paid enough to be able to afford day care then use it. When you have to work a weekend even if it is your kid’s dance recital tough shit. Life isn’t all roses and whipped cream, and once you realize this its much easier to deal with the crappy parts.
Reply
- Read More
  PomoHomoSamuel M.
  5/29/15 12:03pm
  “everything worked out for me, so why doesn’t it work for you?”
  
  This is so fucking narcissistic. Not everyone has the same exact life as you.
  Reply
- Read More
  Clockwork DragoonSamuel M.
  5/29/15 12:10pm
  Because yours is the exception, not the rule. Unfortunately, one metric of success is dumb fucking luck, and a lot of us, myself included, either didn’t put enough points in that stat or get really crappy rolls. Job locations, available candidates versus you, if you just happen to know what they’re asking for, the biases of who you interviewed with being in your favor, etc. I’m pleased you have met with success, I truly am, but for every one case like yours, there are another 10 that get screwed over.
  Reply
Read More
ThanksHamilton Nolan
5/29/15 12:32pm
The stories of how minor or chronic health problems result in devastating consequences for a family really reinforce my assertion that no matter what kind of *amazing* opportunities my spouse is offered as a job in the US, we will NEVER move there. I am aware that in Canada tragedies can happen that also make it hard for those who can’t work due to illness or injury, but they seem so rare in comparison. Don’t get me wrong, I know our system isn’t perfect, and there are still too many families who struggle on assistance here too. But the social safety net that we have in place really makes it so much easier to stay afloat in tough times. (But of course there are still the weirdos who rally against it. I hope they stay in the minority.)
Reply
- Read More
  All Corgis All the TimeThanks
  5/29/15 1:06pm
  Same with us. My husband has been offered several jobs in the US and he’s like NOPE. Giving up our healthcare safety net is frankly something we are unwilling to do.
  Reply