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a fierce article about welfare and misogyny

760 Views 8 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  littlehiphuggers
I would love to know what you all think of this article.

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/storie.../06/08/8100743

In my opinion, it's not the best written thing I've ever read, but it makes some strong points, and expresses a lot of (in my opinion) righteous rage. The link is to a website that also includes comments on the article, which are also quite interesting.
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The link didn't work for me. I'd really like to read the article, is it posted anywhere else you can link too?
That was interesting. I never thought of welfare for women and children that way: that it's more or less paying women the child support their deadbeat ex-husbands should be paying and that meanwhile, the men get off scott-free and the women are blamed.

I'm sure some will have issues with the concept of social security as welfare for white males--I think I have issues with this, LOL.
I remember the first time I read the article about using Bfeeding as the "norm" (instead of breastfeeding being better than normal, formula being worse, etc...)--- it totally blew my mind. Not the concepts, but that I had to have them pointed out to me.

Welfare, for me, is the same way.

I have come to realize that welfare (especially WIC and other forms of aid to the working poor) is really a corporate subsidy. If employees were forced to pay a living wage (& reasonable benifits) the call for these programs would drop like a rock.

Medicaid (rather than everyone being insured) is a subsidy for insurance companies (it would cost less money to cut out for-profit insurance companies and insure EVERYONE than is currently spent on bureaucracy) in addition to a license for making money.

We live in a socialist country. Unfortunately, the money is redistributed *only* to the very wealthy. Why can companies recieve more money back they pay in (to the tunes of multiple millions) but when a mother with two children working a full time job gets back $1K (having paid more in payroll taxes btw) it is seen as against the "American Way"?

Someday, people will wake up and realize they are infinately more like the family on welfare struggling to get by than the "movers & shakers" than encourage their condemnation. Hopefully, it won't be too late.
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I think her main points are dead on, even though the writing is a little rough around the edges. Welfare is subsidized child support, in a sense. These women are degraded and exploited by these programs. And, of course, it is absurd to work all day in a meaningless, dead-end job for minimum wage so that some other woman can be paid minimum wage to care for your children. It is great to see someone with so much energy and insight while struggleing in the midst of this. One picky point, she is in error regarding social security being equivalent to welfare. Social security is an entitlement program given to people who jump through a lot of hoops to demonstrate that they are disabled and unable to work. The disability must be severe enough to preclude any full-time employment. SSD programs are for people who have a significant work history and made contributions to the program through wage deductions, basically like a government sponsored long-term disability insurance policy. SSI is for people with litttle or no work history, who are also disabled. They do receive benefits of approximately $560 per month. The program is actually dominated by women, not men. Men, who are or become disabled, are more likely to qualify for workman's compensation or SSD programs. In my state, many women who use up all their eligibility for welfare apply for SSI based whatever mental or physical problems they have. So, anyway, she seems a little confused about all this. No need to revile people on social security as they are just as bad off as she is, perhaps worse, because they are disabled.
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I mostly agree with the article. Some of the responses to it however were pretty disgusting.
I work with this issue day in and day out, as a a manager at an affordable housing complex. I deal with TANF and SSI ALL the time. I agree that the system doesn't work how it is, but there are two sides to every story. We have 64 units, almost all stay at home single mothers, and all but one of the toddlers go to Head Start from 7am to 4pm every day. They are not being parents, and everything they do is being paid for by the taxpayers- their rent, utilities,child care, food, beer, cigarettes, ect.
The author has a much valid point for the mothers who want to be with their children, homeschool, ect although you just don't meet too many of these people in real life. Autor Hygeia Halfmoon (Primal Mothering) suggests women on welfare should be trained to run at home businesses, or at least careers that can be done from home. I completely agree, although getting the government to do it is another thing entirely.
As for the nasty comments on the bottom, I meet a ton of welfare dads ;o)
Quote:

Originally Posted by Raven67
. Social security is an entitlement program given to people who jump through a lot of hoops to demonstrate that they are disabled and unable to work. The disability must be severe enough to preclude any full-time employment. .
Raven- Do you know there are a zillion lawyers who specialize in obtaining SSI benefits? A applicant on the phone the other day, I asked her if she was disabled, and she said "Not yet, but I'm working on it"
And alot of families recieve both SSI and TANF....and make more yearly then we do.
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