A long-time reader of The Daily Dose of Reason at DrHurd.com wrote me the following, and gave me consent to post it:
I wanted to comment on your recent post “Food Stamp Withdrawal”.
You are 100% right.
I had come to the conclusion that people who are perpetual users of food stamps are the least ambitious, and most irresponsible, in this country. And I am not talking about senior citizens on Social Security.
At one point I had to get on food stamps, and I was totally embarrassed. After being laid off during the 2008 financial crisis, I spent 7 years of underemployment. (As of three weeks ago, and after moving to another state 8 months ago, I am finally working full time in a job that is consummate with my education and skill set.)
During my time of underemployment, I noticed many individuals worked the fewest hours or would not take advantage of overtime hours so as to not affect their food stamp funding.
After deciding to take a second job my food stamp allotment was reduced to a measly $18 a month; I am not joking!!
Purchasing meats and dairy products costs more than that amount. I had come to the conclusion that this program discouraged work.
There’s a kind of twisted logic to it: there’s no benefit in working more, in trying to better oneself when it is easier to live off of others for that $350 a month for your EBT.
The more children one has, the more one gets in allotted food stamps and every other welfare program.
After the struggles I went through, to see able-bodied people take advantage of the system angered me.
And because there is a new “sheriff” in town, now they are getting off their lazy asses to find work!!!
It makes me even more angry that Obama created an environment that encouraged parasitism. He could have been a better president than he was.
The Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Madam C.J. Walker, and a slew of heroic Americans long forgotten would be appalled at what the welfare state has done to many Americans.
I refused to fall for that trap. Maybe it has a lot to do with my upbringing.
These past 7 years were a test of persistence, courage, perseverance, and patience. I am no one’s charity case.
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