General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Where did the "poor folks buying crab legs with food stamps" thing come from? [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)It could have been her idea of a joke.
And even if she did do this, it's the system and how it treats the poor that helped goad her into it. The poor, when they meet with caseworkers and those who determine their benefit eligibility, are subjected to humiliating, soul-destroying treatment-they're all made to feel like they are criminals simply for APPLYING for benefits(even if they are unchallengeably eligible for them)they face intrusive and unjustified home visits from people checking to see if they are miserable enough for the system's satisfaction, and nobody, nobody at all, offers them any REAL pathway out of their conditions.
Even the conservative notion that the poor could all find work"if they just looked hard enough" isn't an answer...in most cases, the jobs aren't where the poor live, they can't afford to get where the jobs are(and there aren't many jobs available even when anybody's hiring)and when they do get the jobs, the bosses treat them like shit and constantly try to fire them for petty offenses like taking too many bathroom breaks(this is done even in they are pregnant women, who need more bathroom breaks than anybody else).
If you want the poor to behave better, work for a system that treats them like goddamn human beings. You can't expect them to be more moral and then MAYBE, if the system feels like it, they get a small, barely existant chance, and are then expected to be pathetically grateful for it, as if even crumbs are more than they deserve.
Most poor people never break a law, never break a rule, never tell a lie, never harm anyone and raise their kids to try to do well in life.
But the system we live in doesn't acknowledge that...and it doesn't recognize the humanity, the intelligence, the creativity, the possibility that lives in the spirit of each of them...as it lives in the spirit of the rest of us("the rest of us" mainly being those lucky enough NOT to have been chewed up and spat out by life).