The government and a complicit media want to paint a false portrait of poverty in America – and it’s hurting the poor, who are now a permanent underclass. That’s one of the takeaways from my interview with The Heritage Foundation’s researcher Robert Rector.
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I could tell you stories limited only to firsthand experience watching my family members and you would be appalled. I don’t always agree with the Heritage Foundation, but Robert Rector is right on. It doesn’t matter if you’re cash poor if you’re getting handed everything else.
My family was pretty dysfunctional and most of my siblings have made liberal use of various types of welfare over the years. If it wasn’t there for them I am pretty sure they would have figured out how to take care of themselves and would have worked their way out of dysfunction. Three siblings are just about complete train wrecks. Among them we have nine illegitimate children, numerous arrests, prostitution, drug use (crack) and prescriptions (you’re paying - thanks), thousands in student aid and loans for incomplete schooling, Section 8 housing, court costs, incarceration costs, food stamps/EBT, medical care, dental care - did I forget anything? Lest you think this is a single example and not endemic to the U.S., I’ve met some of the neighbors in these Section 8 complexes. Same type of stories.
With the way the economy - and my income - has taken a dive, I’ve started shopping in discount stores like Wal-Mart for groceries. I’m seeing things I never saw before. Like a woman buying over $100 in decorative household items, and then paying for a grocery purchase of about the same amount with one of those EBT cards. Or people buying carts full of expensive (and unhealthy, I might add) convenience foods and snack foods with EBT.
Because they received help with housing, food and medical care, my siblings could afford trendy new clothes for their kids while I bought next to nothing or shopped at thrift stores for my kids’ clothes. I’m not complaining because I wish my kids could have had taxpayer funding - I was shopping within my means and I knew it. I just want only the truly needy to receive assistance. And very rarely in my 40+ years have I met anyone I’d call truly needy.
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