Welfare recipients are faking depression (reg. req. – try BugMeNot) and physical injuries to avoid meeting work requirements. You don’t say? I have no doubt that eating from the government trough and gaming the system can lead to a self-perpetuating cycle of depression and sense of worthlessness. I can only hope that those who were raised to know better also feel a generous amount of shame.
Update: Writes Star Parker:
More than $7 trillion has been spent on poverty programs since Lyndon Johnson declared his “war on poverty” 40 years ago, with effectively zero impact on overall black poverty. Yet 40 years of failure doesn’t seem to be enough to suggest to liberals, black and white, that their approach to poverty might be wrong.
{ 19 comments }
Yup, this is sad but true…
I have a cousin that is not married, more than one kid, with a worthless daddy (he has not worked for more than 3 years and refuses to take a job that would pay less than $10 an hour… this coming from someone with barely a highschool diploma and no initiative). She has “back pain and depression” illnesses that she has been using in an attempt to get disability (she been to court three times already in the past 6 years and has been turned down each time). Another attempt to get disability is on the way (I’m still trying to figure out how the lawyer is getting paid for with welfare funds but who am I. These ailments miraculously disappear on club night or at the yearly family reunion (or even when she pops up pregnant). The saddest part of all is she is now hooked on the many pain pills(oxycontin is the latest one) that her doctor prescribes for the so called “back pain”.
We are still trying to reach her (even if to just save the three daughters she has that neither her or their sperm donor daddy will take care of).
Thanks for reminding me that the “stereotype” that us Black folks want to pretend does not exist anymore, is alive and well in many of our families.
No one wants to be depressed. however behavioral medicine is the darling to state medicine. They work hand in hand to drug patients who are depressed. The state’s money would be better spend on trying to find the cause instead of cloaking it. State medicine is some of the worst kind of quackery.
Maribel Hernandez
I am a “Johnnie-one-note” on this, but chronic welfare rewards amoral behavior. An amoral person does not act in regard to “right” and “wrong.” An amoral person games the system and does what works best for him in the short term. (We sometimes call this “street smarts.”)
As far a depression is concerned, every human on earth is “depressed”. If you believe the psychobabble community, we should all have two state paid therapists assigned to us 24/7.
La Shawn:
As an Anesthesiologist with some experience at Pain Management, I can tell you – the numbers of patients with “depression” and “pain” is more a function of how much medical care is available, rather than the other way around.
Renee
“Gaming the system” is NOT a Black thing. Many more Whites are playing this game – there’s just mor of us.
Another popular ailment is alcoholism, which lots of people get on “disability” for. As long as they keep claiming that “disability”, they’ll get the gov’t money, thus avoid work.
Frank,
I did not say it was a BLACK thang..
I am relating a family story, very close and personal..and
sorry but Black do pretend that it is not occuring in a gross proportion within our community (sure more whites do it but as a percentage of the their repective populations…)
Sitting around doing nothing but watching TV would make me depressed. There is tremendous satisfaction in a job well done. Too many people never learn this.
In Mass they have a weight chart to collect transitional assistance BUT it’s not just weight. You also have to suffer from a medical problem like joint pain. If you’re 5′8″ and weigh 302 lbs my guess is you have joint pain. I unfortunately need to gain about 121lbs at my height to receive transitional assistance.
After watching a family member “play the system”, I’ve become extremely cynical. We pay into unemployment and disability for the times it’s TRULY needed. Yet, our sinful, lazy, greedy nature is celebrated in so many areas of society today. II Thessalonians 3:10 “…Whoever does not work, should not eat.”
Lisa M., if only we can get Christians to contemplate that passage! Too many so-called like to rag on me whenever I blog about government welfare recipients.
Speaking of depression…
it appears they didn’t let PVT Lynndie England use the “depressed”, “I was abused”, “I have learning disabilities” defense and convicted her on six of seven counts
La Shawn,
I agree – if Christians truly lived scripture, lived in the grace and power of Christ each and every day – wow, maybe we’d actually be available for God to work through us. Maybe we’d stand up with God’s courage coursing through our veins and speak Truth in Love without fear.
I have a family member who suffers from depression. And when it hits, said member physically can’t work. Can’t even get out of bed.
Unless someone has a family member in this situation, you have no idea what is happening to the family. None.
I’ve had several in that situation, and I’ve had a touch of it myself. I’ve never used it as an excuse, though. Never – Admin
Having experienced depression myself, it’s not easy to get through. However, as I interpreted it, La Shawn’s article wasn’t pointed at those who suffer with TRUE depression.
We’ve become an enabling society that rewards laziness – anyone can claim depression (or some other over-exaggerated/ficticious ailment) and receive government subsidies. This hurts everyone – especially those who truly do need the assistance.
Strangely enough, when comparing state unemployment figures, it has emerged that individuals ‘require’ exactly the amount of weeks that the state is willing to provide for them to find a job, whether it is ten or thirty…human nature..It bolsters Frank’s premise that we are often seeing behavior that is a function of what is available.
I know some 5′8″ 302 pound folks that work harder than those skinny people.
Star Parker is touting more neo-con nonsense.
“Poverty Programs” as even right winged think tanks attest to, also include:
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
Basically, these neo-cons want to ELIMINATE these programs, dealing severe blows to the poor, infirm, elderly and weakest amongst us, including those victimized by NATURAL DISASTERS beyond their control.
But that’s the nature of the beast.
–Cobra
Renee, I’m praying for you and you cousin. I thank God that you are in her life and the lives of her children.
Thank you Evon. Actually, I have invited her and her daughters down this weekend. There is a seminar at my church on Feminism and TRUE Biblical Womanhood and she has shown great interest in attending (her oldest daughter is recently born-again and asked her mother to bring them down for the event). Keep praying.
Comments on this entry are closed.