Tisha Morrison, 46, of Pacoima found herself taking refuge in the Los Angeles area after her Louisiana home was destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.
Today, the single mother of eight, who lost her part-time job at a shelter in May after it closed, struggles to stretch her roughly $1,225 in welfare and food stamps that she receives each month to care for her and her five young children who live at home.
The emphasis up there is mine, by the way. Just in case you missed it.
Let just get to the down and dirty, shall we? This woman is on welfare because of the choices she made in life. Period. It's not "bad luck". It's not "God's will". It's not anything but a direct result of the choices she's made. She is a SINGLE MOTHER OF EIGHT.
Where's daddy in all of this? Or, as is most likely the case, where are the daddies?
And please spare me the sob stories of "Well, what if she was married, and the husband died?" Then the husband would have been included as at least a side note in this little sob story. But since there isn't a single mention of a husband at all, I'm willing to bet my entire paycheck that there is no husband, never was a husband, and never will be a husband.
This woman is on the government dole because she made the choice to sleep around and have children out of wedlock. And now everyone else is paying for her choices. THAT is why the welfare system needs to be done away with.
We will never get rid of poverty by just handing money over to people who continually fuck up their own lives. We can only reduce poverty by refusing to protect people from the consequences of their own actions. Then, and only then, will we be able to actually help the folks who had a run of bad luck and need a hand up.
Until we refuse to just give people money because they've fucked up their lives, then the number of people in "poverty" will continue to grow. Things you subsidize, you get more of. Things you tax, you get less of. We've been subsidizing poverty for decades now, and it ain't gone away at all. It's grown. Time to try a different tact.
Standing in line at my local grocery store, the woman ahead of me is paying with her welfare assistance and complaining about how hard it is to make ends meet - while her 5 kids are running around and her boyfriend(wearing pajama bottoms, wife beater T and slippers at 5pm) is at the cigarette counter buying 3 cartons of Marlboro's. I looked at the items I'm buying - all generics or on sale or coupon for less than the generic equivalent. What's she got? The most expensive name brand brand everything.
ReplyDeletePlaying it straight really is for suckers.
her's a radical thought: if you start collecting money for an illegitimate bastard, your tubes get tied or you get the five-year Norplant birth control installed.
ReplyDelete