Lately the major New York radio station that I listen to has been peppering its audience with “public service” spots exhorting listeners to sign up for food stamps. No mention is made of the cost of providing increasing numbers of people with free food.
Well, that gives me an idea…
Why don’t we all get food stamps? Have a lottery to pick a Designated Worker–yes, this poor soul will have to keep working, to pay for all the food stamps–while the rest of us just kind of sink into our recliners and collect.
Sure, that’s an economic model that’ll work–a whole bunch of public employees living on luxurious pensions (a few million more of them every year), and a sizeable mass of the general public, maybe 60% or more, totally dependent upon various entitlement programs from the government. That still leaves a few million citizens available to work real, real hard to pay for this largesse. Our glorious national leaders of the Pwogwessive persuasion seem committed to this course.
And they call me a fantasy writer!
From March 15, 2012
I fully understand that some people need assistance, but what I don’t understand is why anyone capable of working would want to be on public assistance. I had a relative who is on disability, for good reason. Injuries have rendered him incapable of any work that is physically demanding, and chronic pain from these injuries make it all but impossible for him to really do much of anything, because he’s on serious medication. But he still wants to work and is trying to find something he can do.
That is the difference between the work ethic of some people and the lack of same in other people.
Hard to imagine, but it seems to be real. It’s ironic; there are people who resent someone who has a job and supports themself, yet it is that working person’s taxes they are living off of.
I don’t think some of them can quite figure that out.
Nobody gets something for nothing, unless someone, somewhere, gets nothing for something. I don’t mind helping people truly in need, but it does no favor to an able bodied person to give them a means of life for nothing in return. It’s bad for not only the giver, but also the recipient.
There was a family of my acquaintance who were quite wealthy, but the offspring of that family were expected to work and fend or themselves. This gave them the confidence to care for their own needs.
Gving your children a work ethic is one of the best things a parent can do for them
Indeed.
This is a provocative and necessary argument that reframes the entire conversation about social safety nets. By advocating for universal participation, you’re cleverly highlighting the absurdity of the stigma. The idea is powerful: if everyone is “on food stamps,” the program transforms from a targeted benefit for “the other” into a shared public utility, like the fire department or public roads. It refocuses the debate from “who deserves help” to “how do we ensure no one goes hungry in a nation of abundance?”
Yes, Lee was a powerful writer.