It's Not Right, but It's Definitely Left
"If it's not a hand-out, if it's not free, if it requires a little work, they don't care for it."
Channel 3 (Sorry, Steve) did a story last night that I believe is a microcosm of society. Of welfare and food stamps and probably to some degree the WIC program. Here you have lots and lots of people lined up for a free government handout, yet some admittedly "don't want to work." You know what, neither do I. But to pay things like my utility bill and buy groceries, I have to.
400-600 people were given opportunities for a job ranging from 6 to 12 bucks an hour, and only 40 of them took it or qualified. Some flunked a drug test (hmmm.....had to have money for that, I'm guessing), and still others failed a background check. Muy interesante indeed.
I can't really offer any answers on how to fix it, but I do know that if you ever start tightening the screws at all, you'll hear cries of racism and who knows what else. But this is a problem. I have sacked groceries for people who buy them on a food stamp card, and then load them into a Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade. I had a man just a couple of weeks ago come in and withdraw ALL the cash off of his EBT (Electronic Benefit Trasfer; food stamp card) account. $264. Now, I have no earthly idea what he's gonna do with that $264, but if he was gonna use it to buy stuff like toilet paper, dog food, or diapers (i.e., stuff you can't buy with the EBT food credit), why wouldn't he just leave it on there?
Tennessee has already attempted to right this ship by forcibly weaning people from the TennCare teat, but as long as there is a system in place where "The federal government does not require people to be responsible for their own actions," there will always be budget problems.
posted by Eric C at 8:46 AM
3 Comments:
Heck, I don't care what you watch. Sure, I would love for it to be 5...but I can't go forcing people to watch our news.
Sounds like an interesting story. I will go check it out on their web page.
Truth be told, I can't tell you the last time I sat down and watched the local news, beginning to end. On Kroger nights, I'm there till at least 10:45. Last night, I think I just turned it on and 3 was the last channel the TV was on. One thing I can say about Channel 5--maybe it's the "Dave Brown effect"--it definitely SEEMS like WMC holds on to more people longer than 3 does. Everytime I watch Channel 3, I'm like, "Where did this dude/dudette come from?!"
Sorry, had to withdraw that money to pay off my bookie after the Titans won last weekend. Who knew?
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