General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Outraged Welfare Punishes Work and Saps Dignity From the Desperately Poor? Please Sign My Petition! [View all]daredtowork
(3,732 posts)But you are stuck in this world for years! And it's completely draining and demoralizing!
Even those who do have to deal with "the system" only deal with one part of it. For instance, I only know of the aspect that relates to single people without children, and the aspect that relates to certain kinds of disabilities. If you are a single mother the situation is different. If you are a two-parent family, the situation is different again...
The entire thing is very fragmented, which is again how the harried voting public is kept ignorant of it.
Sadly, many people don't keep an open mind about what they might not know. Instead they get very defensive about the groove they are already in and the opinions they already hold. If you try to let them know what the situation is really like, they actually think you - a person without any income or status or anything in your life what so ever - are exerting some sort of condescending power over them simply by telling them a truth they don't want to hear. Those of us who are in a position to share our experiences don't have very much available to do so, and we really can't be mounting an offensive against the people who just don't want to hear it on top of everything else. I think that's why the truth doesn't really "trickle up". Instead the Romney-style lies trickle down and cover up the reality of what people on welfare are going through like some sort of heavy glue: nothing ever gets done about a terrible situation because not enough people realize something needs to be done.