jabberwockypie:

jadelyn:

finnglas:

birchsoda:

wandererriha:

fayanora:

thatadult:

I don’t think welfare fraud is a problem period I genuinely don’t. I don’t care when it happens and it means nothing to me. I’m glad. As if the government doesn’t steal from you every day lmao… I don’t give a damn

It’s also literally not a problem because there isn’t enough welfare fraud happening to even be a problem to any reasonable human being. It’s practically nonexistent, in fact.

My first “real job” out of college was working for the welfare fraud and collection line.

My God.

If ever there was a job that made you despair for humanity.

I learned two things there: 

1. People are petty-ass bitches who can’t stand to see their “neighbor on welfare” doing “better” than they are.

2. 99.9999% of the time there was no actual fraud, just a GROSS lack of knowledge as to how the welfare system actually works on the part of both non-recipients.

Example: Had some guy report his neighbor for owning an “expensive antique car”. Said car was a 1978 Buick with no remaining paint, no hubcaps, and was at least fifth-hand. At the time, the year was 2002. I politely explained that a) that’s not a classic car and b) he should pity his neighbor the gas mileage and insurance costs. The caller said he had not thought of that and hung up.

My other favorite was someone calling to report that their “neighbor on welfare” who was a single mother with no income or support had her children in a “private school”. I asked what the name of the school was. Said private school is actually a charity-run orphanage and school for children who have no parents, or whose family situation is less than stable. I informed the caller of this and they hung up without a word.

Someone else called and felt that their “neighbor on welfare” should have to sell all their jewelry, antiques, family heirlooms, and collection of vintage sports memorabilia before they could be eligible to be “given free money” by the state.

The system is old, overtaxed, convoluted, and being forced to function in a way that was never intended. Like the workhouses of the 19th c, welfare was originally for out of work men. But the people who wound up using it were women, children, the disabled, and the elderly. This continues to this day.

If there’s fraud, it’s minimal to the point of barely existing. Ya’ll are just greedy, nosy, entitled assholes who can’t mind your own damn business. If you REALLY want to do something about “all these people on welfare” try, I don’t know, ACTUALLY HELPING THEM. Offer to watch their kids. Make them a casserole. Drive them to the store. Don’t make their lives harder than they already are. I guarantee, their lives are a LOT harder than yours.

Also it costs $0 to mind your own beeswax!

I remember I had a vocally Christian coworker once who complained about welfare, and I said, “Didn’t Jesus say feed and clothe the poor and hungry?” “Well yes, but that shouldn’t be the government.” “And here I thought you WANTED the government to be run on Christian values. Isn’t that what you’re always saying?”

He was quiet for a very long time after that.

Honestly, conservative Christians will always say they don’t want the government handling social support programs, because those should be managed through private charity efforts. Which, as noted, doesn’t align with their claims that this is a Christian country, Christian values should guide lawmaking, etc.

But there is an actual reason and logic underpinning it, and it’s simple. They want social support to be a private charity effort because that way, they can control who gets support, making sure it only goes to those who share their values, thus using it to coerce people into adopting their values in order to access needed support. If social support comes from the government, it’s available to everyone* and is useless as a tool to coerce conversion. Just look at how they scream bloody fucking murder every time a government-funded private religious charity is forced to provide services fairly to all who need it without regard for the particulars of the recipients’ lifestyles. They want the power to say only Good Christian Families get to access support, which will either kill off the rest of us with homelessness and starvation and whatnot, or force people in need to perform Good Christian Lifestyle in order to get help.

They might be willing to follow their god’s exhortations to care for those in need, but only when they can use it to score Soul Points by converting the heathen masses.

(*everyone being a bit of an overstatement in practice, given the hoops social services forces folks to jump through to access benefits, but that’s a separate conversation.)

It’s like the food banks that are run by churches.

“Okay, cool, good of them to be distributing food”, right?

Except SOME of them will say “Well if you come in to listen to a sermon, you get to go to the front of the line. You don’t HAVE TO listen to it, but if you don’t, then you have to wait outside for an hour in Michigan in January, and we’re telling you that we might run out of food”*. Because they’re ASSHOLES.

*Actual example I have experienced.