There's been a lot of discussion lately about social services (social security, welfare, government medical). It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people talk about not wanting to fund these programs. There are lots of reasons why people don't want to fund them - they believe that the people who use these programs are lazy, they believe that there should be fewer taxes, they believe people need to take care of themselves and not expect others to do it for them.
I agree that some people abuse the system but, honestly, that's what the system is for. (not to be abused but to be used) What defines abuse of the system? So many people use the example of a woman with six kids who never works and each of her kids have different fathers. Yes that happens but that's just one example of someone who uses the welfare system. I have heard arguements about not letting those who take drugs or are illegal immegrants use the welfare system. I think that a nation who calls themselves Christians and is founded on the principle that we take in those who need a place to go - well it's just sad.
I'm not going to keep rambling because I do have some serious points here and I may take all week to get to them all. I know there are a million examples of people who abuse and use the system but if you took a moment to pick it apart you'd see something completely different.
I'm going to start with our use of the system. We've struggled for ages. We still struggle. We depend on food stamps to supply us with more food than we could buy on our own (at this moment my income doesn't cover all the bills let alone gas and food so we pick and choose and struggle). Xavier gets free lunch at school. With that he also gets free breakfast.
So the system goes away. We struggle more but we'll make it work. Rob will go back to work when school starts so we can pay all our bills and buy food. We'll make lunches to send with Xavier which he won't eat because he doesn't like to take a lunch so he'll not have lunch. We may try to send money for lunches because taking a lunch doesn't work but we struggle with him buying snacks so his lunches will vary from nothing to ice cream to salty snacks. We'll stop sending money because we want him to eat good food so he'll start begging from his friends.
We'll get mad at him because he has access to food which will cause him to purposely not eat. That's okay - he's a chubby kid so starving's actually good because then he'll lose weight and be perfect (because that's all we care about). No one will be concerned about his nutrition but his mother because he's far to fat (his previous dr tried to convince us he was obese because that's the big concern these days). He'll not do well in school but then he's on an IEP so that's expected. No one really cares if he does well in school or if he's able to go to college because that's not their concern - until he can't get a job as an adult. Then people will say he's lazy and probably always was because he did so poorly in school. He'll continue to be fat because the food he can afford has poor nutrition and high calories. Or he'll have to live with his parents the rest of his life because he can't function as an adult because he can't get a job (and the welfare/disability system is gone so there's no support for him to live on his own).
Most likely none of that will happen because he's got family support and we won't let that happen but it happens for children all over the nation. A simple program like free school meals is an incrediably important program. For so many children on the program the food they get at school is all they get. It's not the parent's fault that they can't make ends meet. Many families struggle with finances. In this economy so many are losing their jobs and they are losing their homes. I'll talk more about other programs later this week because I don't want this to be a mile long.
We worry about the children getting fat but no one wants to give money to these programs so the schools feed the kids what they have access to - which is not great food. No one seems to understand that cheap food is not always the most nutritious and quite often it's calorie dense. I had an arguement with a woman about obesity and the poor. So many want to instill educational programs because we are all too stupid to understand nutrition. That's not true - cheap food is not always the best food. This particular woman said she makes good food for her family for very little money but the dishes she offered were beans, pasta, etc. That was my point. I can feed my family a good dish for a few dollars but it's most likely going to lack in fresh vegetables and lean meats.
If my son goes to school and eats breakfast pizza and hamburgers, then comes home to a big pot of beans cooked with ham hocks -it's not exactly a diet that's going to make him look like a supermodel. But then we do away with the free food and he'll be eating white bread and tuna for lunch (and hope he eats something at home for breakfast) and then coming home for beans at dinner.
I know I'm rambling and it probably doesn't make any sense but I am so fed up with the stupidity of our nation - does no one think things through.
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