When a loaf of bread looks like a banquet, I’ve no right buying tobacco. — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
One of the things that always gets under my skin is when I see people with obvious signs of disposable wealth living on the public dime. If you must ask others to provide the necessities of life, then you have no business having a sumptuous life. And just to make sure I define my terms here, these things are what I consider the necessities of life:
- Nutritious food and clean water
- Shelter, with the ability to light and heat it
- Air conditioning in the home, although I will argue about this one on occasion
- Basic medical care, and I mean basic
- Seasonally appropriate clothing
The following things are not necessities of life:
- Tattoos, piercings, personal care products beyond basic soap, toothpaste, and shampoo, and cosmetics
- Cable television
- Telephones of any sort
- Internet access
- Clothing beyond necessity in either quantity or quality
- Transportation other than the kind that’s provided by your shoes
- Luxury foods, to include treats, sweets, soda, and alcohol
- Any food prepared in a restaurant
- Entertainment of any kind that costs money
- Anything not listed here, but isn’t listed in the list of necessities
In case you’re wondering who decides what is and what isn’t a necessity of life, that would be me. If you’re asking me to make sure you don’t fall down dead in the street, then I get a vote in where my money ought to go and for what.
Someone who is on assistance of any kind, with the exception of Social Security or VA benefits, has no business owning a nice car, dressing in anything approaching the latest fashion, having cable TV and high-speed Internet access in their home, or eating out. What money they do have ought to be used to either improve their ability to support themselves or be used to eliminate at least part of their reliance on the charity of others.
I know a sense of shame in such matters has largely been removed from the American psyche in the 50 years since President Johnson began using forced charity to retain voter blocks for his party, but I don’t have to like it. On a couple of occasions in my life, the charity of others has put food in my mouth and a roof over my head. However, the shame of having to depend on others, even as a teenager, was bad enough to make me promise myself that my children would never have to endure it. If only more people made that promise, we might be in a better position as a society.
DaddyBear’s Den 
oldnfo
/ March 30, 2014Concur with all… If they want more, get a damn job and pay for it themselves…
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derfreiheit
/ March 30, 2014I disagree with you, very strongly, on two points. Phone and internet.
Take someone with say Girlie Bears skills. Now at 14 she is WAY ahead of a number of adults I have had the misfortune to know so work with me. Help her find a job:
– not using the internet
– without the ability to take a phone interview
– without the ability to be called in for an interview
– without the ability to be contacted if she does get the job
I’ll even give you a handicap, do that in 2014 with a POTS line and no voicemail.
I can bend on the internet a bit. It is available at community centers, libraries, churches, and job centers now. A lot of entry level / starting over type jobs are listed in print media still.
The modern minimum standard is a phone that can make calls and do text messaging in your pocket. Not a POTS line on the wall. You can be working your crap job or looking for work at other places and be contactable. Can’t do that with a POTS line.
Furthermore we pay an irritating tax to provide POTS access to underserved demographics. It is simply more efficient to spend that on a barebones cellular device than it is on a POTS line.
The ability to be reached and communicate is key to taking care of oneself and functioning in society. I am just as opposed to luxuries as you are. However, certain things have to exist for the “hand-up not hand-out” methods to work. “Get a job, but I forbid you to use my assistance on key aspects of a functional member of society” is a losing proposition for everyone.
Parting shot – Any cash entitlements (VA, SSDI, Welfare, etc etc) should also come with a Dave Ramsey style budgeting course. Folks who are honestly down on their luck get it already and need a little help to come back up. Folks who are just going to milk the system either have to have some lessons beaten into their heads or it has to be more work to deal with the constraints of entitlements than actually working.
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derfreiheit
/ March 30, 2014TL;DR – Assuming that a general scaling back of entitlements won’t happen, lets at least work to spend them as efficiently as possible. A mobile phone is more efficient than POTS.
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daddybear71
/ March 30, 2014Freiheit, I’ll agree that access to telecommunications makes it easier to get a job, both from the aspect of looking for one and from the aspect of being reachable to prospective employers. Like you said, Internet access is available at places such as libraries.
If we must provide telephone access available to job seekers so that they can get call backs, I think it would be much more efficient to put in a central voicemail system that can be checked either on-line or via POTS.
The Obamaphone fiasco, or whatever we want to call the program by which ‘underserved’ individuals could get a free cell phone with limited minutes has soured me to such a solution. It’s just been abused too much, which means it’s just as likely to be abused in the future. If someone needs a number that can be called to schedule interviews and such, set up a subsidized phone bank that translates voicemail to an email or can be checked remotely. I wouldn’t be surprised if something like this wouldn’t be close to COTS and a damn sight cheaper.
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TinCan Assassin
/ March 30, 2014Oh, I am so with you here. I pisses me off how often I see people buying junk food with an EBT card in my convenience store and then turning around and buying smokes with cash. $20 bills even!
Must. Restrain. Fist. Of Death.
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