What do you deserve?

We all know the best thing about Lyndon B. Johnson was Lady Bird, who is a national treasure and deserves to treated as such, but he had his moments.  Such as when he declared a war on poverty and believed it could be erradicated through the creation of "better schools, and better health, and better homes, and better training, and better job opportunities.”  It was unprecedented, a move that would never again be matched by any President.  President Johnson believed that it was the responsiblity of the governemnt to intervene on behalf of it's citizen's for the common good.  This was the beginning and end of a war that could have drastically changed the face of poverty in America.  In 1964, spending was increased for programs such as Head Start, Work Study, food stamps, and Medicare and Medicaid.  The Revenue Act of 1964 and the Economic Opportunity Act provided additional relief to the poor and middle class that had become limited in their upward mobility.  The Revenue Act cut taxes by 20% and the Economic Opportunity Act created major programs like Work Study, Job Corps, and Adult Basic Education.

Those living below the poverty rate dropped from 23% to 12%.

This is a slippery slope, an informal fallacy that relies on the ignorance of the general public, misonceptions of the media, and the negative framework of poverty that is created by politicians.  Let me be clear; I am not unaware of the myriad issues surrounding poverty and the individuals who experience it.  Have I seen individuals that attempt to game the system, of course...but if you want to bring up individuals who have "cheated" the system, lets talk about Bernie Madoff, the financial crisis of 2007, sub-prime mortgages, the FHA and redlining, and corporate faud.  Which is probably costing you more tax dollars than the millions upon billions of crappy poor people who are "cheating" the welfare system.  You CANNOT have a one sided argument.  Let me introduce you to the "evil rich"....but we'll come back to that, right now we are discussing the gross poor people that are too lazy to go get a job.

As of 2012 the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that 10.5 million individuals formed the "working poor".  These are people who are living in poverty and working.  Let me stress the working part.  Do they deserve to live in poverty because they don't work hard enough? I don't know, did that guy who died from a snake bite not believe in Jesus hard enough?  It's relative to what your belief system is but the fact is, you don't have to be an asshole about it.  Look, I get it, if you want to assume that people who are poor are just a bunch of jerks who can't crawl their way out of the gutter than I'm going to assume that you are an idiot who is floating down a douche river in a canoe.  It is incredibly irresponsible to make such assumptions about people, especially those who are poor.  Politicians and society love to flap their gums about the wonderful post-racial utopia we are currently (not) living in:  WE HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT, THAT ONE LADY IN SOME GOVERNMENT SEAT IS A MEXICAN OR SOMETHING, MINORITIES NOW OUT NUMBER WHITE PEOPLE!!!  Listen white people, just because SEVERAL groups of MINORITIES out number you does not a majority make.  You are still a majority so relax and be comforted in the many benefits of which you reap simply by being born white.

An issue that is consistently brought up in conversation, especially in regards to economic opportunities and race, is that minorities simply can't make it in the world and whatever failings they have in life, it is all their fault.  Fair enough. But kind of empirically wrong.

Let's start with being born poor, lets begin: Congratulations lazy poor incubator, you have just given birth to a child.  You have little to no human capital, one because you are a women (ewwwww) and two, you are not white.  Being the poor single mother that you are (and cause for all of the poverty in the world because the world is misogynistic), you live in a pretty crappy neighborhood.  Your neighbor was recently shot and you know at least one person who has an entrepreneurial goal of becoming a drug dealer.  You poor person, have brought into this world another new poor person who will most likely go to a crap school where there will be limited resources and limited options for securing a quality education.  22% of children in poverty do not graduate from high school as compared to only 6% of those who are not living in poverty.

Your parastitic child who is also to lazy to get a job is spending all your hard earned money on necessities like food and clothing so you have to get some benefits, whatever welfare queen!  Alright, so you managed to get the scoundrel to graduate from high school, now what...well, very little.  College, hahahaha, are you kidding me!! Have you seen how expensive it is to go to college? So get a job, maybe? A good one? NOPE.  Look, I'm taking some liberties here and at this point I'm bored so lets talk about institutionalized racism and it's going to be quick.  If you can't understand that Jim Crow Laws, the FHA redlining and the G.I. Bill utilized racist policies to ensure that white neighborhoods blossomed and black ghettos flourished, then you really need to reconsider your position as telling people you are not prejudiced.

The United States has systematically enagaged in racist and discriminatory policies.  It has not stopped.

1850- Approximately 305,000 individuals forcibly transported on via U.S. vessels as part of the   Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from mid 1600's to 1850.

1876- Jim Crow Laws put into effect.  They were not abolished until 1965.

1830- Indian Removal Act of 1830.  This was a form of ethnic cleansing that resulted in the deaths of approximately 2,000-6,000 Native Americans.

1913- California Alien Land Law of 1913 prohibited American Indians from owning land, stripped them of land rights.  Was not repealed until 1952.

1921- National Origins Formula based number of immigrants on a quota system.

1923- United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thind classified Indians as non-white, retroactively stripped Indians of their citizenship. No case has ever overturned this classification.

1929- Mexican Repatriation: forced migration of approximately 2 million Mexican Americans

1934- National Housing Act of 1934 established the FHA which utilized discriminatory redlining practices and blockbusting.  Was not abolished until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 but still needed a second act, the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 to encourage fair lending practices.

1942- Japanese American Internment.

1981- Until 1997, the United States Department of Agriculture denied loans to Black farmers that were given to White farmers that were experiencing similar issues.

The racism that existed in the past may not be as overt but those who are racist have chosen to do so in a way that is outside of the public eye.  It is done in secret and in ways that prey on the fears of Americans.  It is in the Republican Southern Strategy, Stop and Frisk Laws, and in Immigration Laws in Arizona.  It is in the way we determine someone's worth based on the community in which they live, the way in which black men with no criminal records and a good education are routinely passed over for white men with less experience and criminal records.  It is in the way we stereotype.  If you cannot have the empathy to understand what minorities go through without the caveat of "well maybe they shouldn't commit so many crimes, do so many drugs, have so many children...etc" then it is safe to say you live in a white bubble void of compassion and empathy. Probably happy and enjoying life and that is fine.  You continue living the way that makes you happy.

Race does not exist, it was created on the machinations of a white majority, who on a whim would determine what and who was white, with no regard to the lives they were ruining and the pain they were causing.  So what do they deserve?  Have they been given enough in the last 70 years after suffering for hundreds? What about you, what do you deserve? 

How Do You Decide?

Is that true, do we really decide how we are going to live? How much choice do we actually have? I have made the decision to be healthier but it is really hard to do when you are a poor college student.  Coupled with my crippling addiction to manicures, shoes and sweaters with animals on them, I have a difficult time keeping money in my checking account.  I stopped eating meat because dead animals make me sad and because being fat is making me even sadder.  Not eating meat means not eating a lot of fast food because that is pretty much all gross, creepy meat that shouldn't be eaten by, pretty much, anyone.  I don't have a degree, that is why I am in college.  I don't make a lot of money at my job, which is why I am in college.  When I am done with college I will be in a massive amount of debt because I am in college now.  I, thankfully, don't have a criminal background and I don't have a child (which I am actually more grateful for than not having a criminal background).  The point is, life keeps in a very precarious situation because I don't have a lot of choices.  I can make multiple decisions everyday and those are MY choices, but the world has decided a lot of things for me, much like fate.  

The world decided that I would be adopted into a loving and financially robust home.  A home that provided me with options, an education, love, and stability.  It would be unlikely that I would become someone that suffered financially, but I have.  Every month was met with an eviction notice and the awareness that I did not have enough groceries to eat and my food was spoiling.  So what did I do, I ignored it...I pretended it didn't exist and I went on about my life in a way that was totally inappropriate for my level of income.  At what point do you completely give up on the comforts of being alive, of enjoying something that allows you just a small opportunity to forget the position that you are currently in?  Is every bad decision a bad decision or just a moment of escape and why should escape from life only be afforded to those who are rich?  Shouldn't we all be allowed to afford some kind of comfort in this world?

Do those that live homeless, hungry, and unemployed really chose how they are living now and do they continue to chose this path?  As an advocate for the homeless I hear a lot about how homeless people live and most of the time, its not by those who are homeless.  It's from people who have never been homeless.  Have they experienced hunger and poverty, maybe? But have they ever lived on the streets, or in a car? Not likely.  Have they ever experienced the crippling dehumanization of being a felon, having a mental illness that keeps them unfit from working? Not that they usually tell me.  This trend of being told what homelessness and poverty is and what it is like to be on welfare is ridiculous and outrageous.

These are some of the most recent welfare memes (I'm not naming names, but it's unlikely we are still friends on Facebook or real life) that I have seen.  I'm not crazy political correct, but there are a few things that I don't joke about.  That is probably a lie, I pretty much joke about everything except rape jokes.  They are never appropriate and I'm not being facetious. They really are NEVER appropriate.  I am prone to making fat jokes (I'm a certified fatty), race jokes (I'm a Mexican, so it's ok) and basically just demeaning and inappropriate commentary on everything, but I digress...here are some of the culprits:


HAHAHAHAHA!! This is funny because people on welfare don't work at all, amirite?? HIGH FIVE GUYS!  EXCEPT THAT 88% of your tax dollars goes to government operations and defense, which means that 12% goes to mandatory welfare programs (http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/08/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2013).



Says 9% of the American population who uses illicit drugs!  How about instead of being angry that the government is asking to take away MORE of your hard earned dollars that you can't earn while being high on drugs so that poor people can be drug tested, you take this up with your legislature since drug testing employees is an enormous breach of privacy and not to mention, also violates at least two amendments to the constitution! (I SAID THAT ALL AS ONE SENTENCE BECAUSE THIS ARGUMENT IS STUPID.)  Moving on.



I will not lie about the fact that yes, I have seen people who are homeless, who own iPhones, smartphones aplenty, and cool electronics.  But lets break it down for a second, shall we?  There does not exist in this world a "welfare check".  It is adorable that you think that there is, but there isn't.  Mind blown, right?  If you are impoverished and receive benefits this is how it works.  SNAP benefits for food are on a card that can ONLY be used to purchase qualified items.  If you receive benefits for health, you do not get a magical welfare check that is written out for so much money that you can cash.  You get MA or some other kind of medical assistance that the state pays for and the recipient gets a medical card.  If an individual qualifies for TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) they do get cash assistance in the form of a card and it is generally between $300-400 dollars a month.  SSI is less than $700 a month and most people then qualify for other assistance that does not allow them the mythical welfare check that you people so often speak of.



What is with you guys and poor people and iPhones? As I stated earlier, have I seen it, yes...but mostly they have pretty inexpensive prepaid phones because their credit is not high enough to get them a plan through a large carrier like AT&T or Verizon.  Several women that I have worked with in the shelter have lovely nails and guess what? They do their nails themselves or buy cheap press on ones from the dollar store.  Much like most women, despite the fact that they are impoverished and living in a homeless shelter, they take pride in their appearance.  How fucking dare they?  
Lots of lots of people have tattoos, maybe they have a friend, maybe at one point they weren't so poor and could afford the luxury of the worlds like iPhones, tattoos, and nail art.  But let's talk about you, how do you pay? Cash, money from your parents, credit cards?  If you charge that shit or get it from your parents; kettle, meet pot.



Did you know that eugenics is a bad thing?  Also, once again, the magical welfare check DOES NOT EXIST.  Let's explore this wonderful world of social commentary on poverty and parenthood! Should poor people be allowed to have children; obviously not, DUH! W.I.C. is a program that could be defined as a welfare program and would fall under "welfare check" status.  So mothers, fathers, and legal guardians who utilize this program should probably just sell their children and move back into the gutter right?  Individuals who use W.I.C. are not bad parents and being low-income does not make a person a bad parent either.  There are plenty of people who use this program and it is a wonderful way to be able to offset the insane cost of raising a child.  In fact, it might be more responsible for people who qualify for it to use it than not.

Beyond this, lets talk about reproductive health care and sex education, shall we?  Remember up until this year when birth control wasn't free? Remember when American society made women feel like slutty tramps for wanting birth control? Remember how we shamed all those women for wanting abortions? hahaha, these are so funny.  Sex education in American is pitiful, access to reproductive health is pitiful and when women have questions about these things, we shame them into oblivion, which is entirely unfair.  Welfare, birth control, and pregnancy is a whole different blog post that I will have to tackle at some point.

The point is, people are dumb and we say dumb things to make ourselves feel better about the positions we are in, the difficulties we face in the economy, and the frustrations we feel.  Unfortunately, we have to learn how to view such things, like welfare and poverty, objectively, so that we can have a better understanding. Being poor or experiencing poverty does not make you a bad person and those that shame you, they are the bad people.  We have no idea what one's life story was before being impoverished and it is not up to you to decide that story for someone.  I recently encountered a story that was heartbreaking.  A gentleman died in a homeless shelter.  Who was a star student, graduated with a degree in architecture and went on to become an architect and a consultant.  His life led him, eventually, somewhere that was dark and full of pain and his last breath was spent in a bed a homeless shelter, surrounded by people who didn't know.  This was a man who had people who loved him and believed in him.  He was intelligent and creative.  I did not know this person, but recounting his story, it still makes me cry.  Why are we so cruel and why do we have so much hate for people we know nothing about?  

I recently read a short essay by the Dalai Lama, "The Basic Sources of Happiness" and it was brilliantly short and to the point.  When a person has a sense of responsibility for humanity, we will take care of all that is around us.  My desire to help is not based on ignorance or blind hope, it is not built on the bleeding heart of religion or servitude.  My desire to help is because I know it is right.